


The Bucket List

by AlexMcpherson79



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: BAMF Skye | Daisy Johnson, Ideas Folder, Skye | Daisy Johnson as Director of SHIELD, Skye | Daisy Johnson knew Maria Hill, Skye | Daisy Johnson married Natasha Romanoff, Skye | Daisy Johnson was in a band, Skye | Daisy Johnson was once a mother
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-16
Updated: 2020-08-21
Packaged: 2021-02-07 03:56:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 57,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21451636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexMcpherson79/pseuds/AlexMcpherson79
Summary: Stories I would like to write (and even complete) before I die. (I'm only 30, so I got time).First Chapter: Set AoS S1. Skye reveals a bit of her past. Apparently, she was in a band.
Comments: 57
Kudos: 61





	1. I was In A Band

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set AoS S1. Skye reveals a bit of her past. Apparently, she was in a band... and a few other things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wrote this little thing in 2017. copied onto here as is, and haven't even corrected any spelling mistakes, so warts and all. very unpolished.

“No, these friends are _not_ Hackers... I wasn’t always a hacker, you know.” She spoke, her nerves showed through as she looked at each of them with rapid glances. “You said we need a way in, to get into that place? They can get in... without being, you know... criminals. Or spies.”

Something in her voice must have told Coulson to trust her, she could read it in his eyes as he nodded, “Alright, but your friends can’t know you’re with shield.”

“Dont worry, I’ll just say ... uh... ‘I want to get the ole’ band back together for old times sake’, speech, you know...”

He nodded, and that was that. Well, she should have known, that that was not that.

-

“Three nights.”

Coulson blinked at her...

“Sorry, I... uh.. should clarify. My friends can get in for three nights. Too dangerous for the first or second, and on the third we can, uh... well, there’ll be a big distraction so... Anyway, my friends have a crew that will help before, set things up. I can maybe get Ward and May on under the cover of technicians. The equipments not that difficult to deal with – If May can fly the Bus, then she can plug a few boxes in, without getting the wrong wire and blowing a speaker... Though I am worried that Mr Robot can’t act like a lackey... Something tells me he’s more the showman kind of undercover.”

He just raised an eyebrow, holding in his smile at her joke.

“C’mon, AC, do you trust me?” She asked cheekily, but he couldn’t help pick up the undertone, that she needs his trust more than she can say.

“... I’m still on the fence..” He joked back, and he saw she got his message, the sheer joy in her eyes from hearing the undertone of _yes_.

-

‘_Do you see her?’_ Simmons asked.

Fitz spoke before he could reply, ‘_I’ve accessed the guest list, none of Skye’s aliases are on there, nor are the names of the friends she told us about.’_

Ward just, casually stared over at his ‘mark’, one former Rising Tide hacker, along with her friends. He almost spoke lowly into his mic, but was cut off again.

‘_I don’t feel very comfortable with this...’_ Simmons worried. ‘_I mean, you’re not supposed to be there for two days... ‘_

“Recon, guys. I want to have a lay of the land, and at least _know_ what her cover is.” He finally got out, as he sat in a corner of the place of interest – a rather large club, a stage at one end, with the audience set at various tables. A Classy place, at one point. Now that was just an illusion. “In the lead up to a mission, you try to keep the surprises down to a minimum. No spy is _that good_ at improv, to deal with every unexpected variable on the spot. If we’re gonna go off-script, then we need a script to go off from. Without little details like that, we’d not have a script.”

Coulson and May were being very tight-lipped about certain mission details, and he didn’t like it, hence his unauthorized recon.

When the group moved to the stage, with equipment hauled up by the ‘crew’ that skye had failed to get him on, - though she did get May on, since May actually had the qualifications to act as a specific kind of engineer, apparently – he blinked as he realised what kind of crew it was, and what group. A band of Musicians.

“Uh, when she said ‘get the band back together’, I think she was speaking... literally. They’re setting up instruments on the stage.”

He flicked his gaze to the assorted members of the support crew – and this was no Amateur-Band level crew, they all matched _May_ for appearing professional, and the name on the drum skins rang a bell, though he couldn’t figure out the what.

‘_A Band?’_ Fitzsimmons asked in confusion.

Suddenly, the lead singer spoke into the mic, and the gathered crowd that had been patiently waiting cheered before he finished the second word, and he paused to let it die down.

“Hi, for those of you who have been fans since the beginning, We’ve got a rare treat... and for those who don’t know, a little history lesson. Our band used to be a five-piece. I shared vocal and guitars with a good friend, who had to go her own separate way before we broke into the mainstream. I’ve sure those who haven’t heard, will like the songs that we’ve lined up, ones that we all agreed not to play without her.”

Ward frowned... did he just?

In the background, he heard the science twins gasp, obviously thinking the same thing.

“Now, let me introduce... She who shines brighter than the night-Skye.”

Ward blinked at the word play... then again as Skye stepped up from the side and took the singers’ place.

There was a loud raucous cheer, and though took a while to die down before she could say anything, it took just as long for Ward to realise that the audience did in fact know who she was.

“For our first song, to help me, get back in to rythm...” She began cheekily, “We’ll start with one of our earliest songs... it’s called, _be myself again_.”

Unnoticed by Skye or the Band, Ward had setup a camera to record the whole thing... the others wouldn’t believe it otherwise.

-

Skye’s return to the Bus was... not quiet.

May was practically carrying the hacker, who was gripping her head with one hand, blocking the light with the other, and was moaning from an obvious hangover.

Coulson, Ward, and Fitzsimmons were waiting, and the younger pair were obviously really excited... and they sounded it too, for all of the five seconds before they realised the pain they caused.

“May?” Coulson asked.

May shook her head a moment, then nodded, and gently pulled Skye up the staircase.

Ward spoke up, a little too loudly though. “Why did you let her drink, she was on mission...”

“--- aaah... Fucking Hell Ward, Indoor voice... indoor...” Skye moaned out, and May just led the girl away without responding.

Coulson waited until the hatch to the upper deck was shut, before looking at Ward and only sort of explaining, “I’m given to understand that part of the cover would involve imbibing Alchohol, particularly significant amounts near the end.”

Ward paused, then said, “Uh... that was no cover, I mean... Those guys were honest when they introduced their songs as being written by Skye...”

The twins startled to talk rapidly about how good it was and Coulson figured out quickly, and gave him a Level 7 stare... one that also quieted the twins, sensing a problem.

He gulped, and tried... “Uh... I’ve got a video... if you want to see.”

-

Coulson coughed lightly as he looked into the small stall. So small that with May giving the girl who was currently vomiting the previous nights’ drinks some comfort, the door couldn’t close.

“How bad?” He asked May.

“Not as much as we thought. The biggest hurdle of the lot is getting in, and as a technician on the band’s support crew, that’s already been dealt with.”

“Good to know, but I meant... the post-gig party.”

She opened her mouth to reply, then shut it... for a second she was quiet, while rubbing a hand in circles as Skye Let Loose again.

A minute passed, the only sounds other than skye being May’s small words of comfort – which in of itself surprised Coulson.

Finally, May picked up Skye who had passed out, and only after silently taking the girl and putting her to bed, did she pull him into the command centre and speak.

“I didn’t see the performance, but there was something about it that opened up old wounds, a song she’d written years ago. Given that I’m a ‘recent’ friend of hers, and not knowing how much Skye trusts me, they wouldn’t let me in on what happened, what song, since she wrote several that she performed last night. I did get some details on the connection between them, though...”

“She’s a former band member?”

May nodded. “I should have known, actually...”

“What do you mean?”

May suddenly smiled a little. “I uh... I’d first heard about the band six months before Skye left it, before she left, they were small-time, on a small label. Trying to get one of the two albums they’d made was next to impossible for a new fan that _didn’t_ attend any of their gigs, which was their only sales vehicle. They were picked up by a major label after the _one_ gig I did attend, but I heard that ‘creative differences’ between unnamed parties resulted in her leaving the band.” Her smile faded. “From what I saw of their interactions, when they thought no one was looking... I doubt that the creative difference was an internal one... if it was such in the first place. They all missed her, though I did catch a little of a question, it sounded like they were asking her if she found something yet, and she said no... but still looking.”

“Do you think that’s why she let herself get caught by us?”

May nodded, with instinctual certainty. “Phil... whatever it is, It’s something personal. Very, personal. Not at all what my initial suspicions were. Cause if it was...”

“Then that band wouldn’t know anything, they’d just miss a former band member, who wouldn’t get emotional over something they obviously know about.” Coulson finished.

“If only we could hear what song... I doubt she’ll perform that one again, whichever one it is.”

Coulson froze.

“Phil...”

“Ward... may have uh... somehow not only got in, which I’m definitely grilling him over... but also recorded the performance. Start to finish.”

-

Skye froze at the scene she found upon waking and entering the lounge area in search of water.

The Five other Agents on the BUS were watching her show from last night, and from the song, it was only into the second one – not one of hers, but apparently, they liked the band.

She was frozen, hoping that it ended before... before that song.

Then she spotted May miming along as the band played the earlier version of one of their mainstream hits, because that’s the version she’d memorised to sing. Sure she knew the backing track was the modern version, with a live twist, and she could improve on the borrowed guitar knowing their ‘sound’ well enough, but this version that May was singing along with with ridiculous accuracy, was _hers_, a gift from Aaron back on the one year anniversary when they all formed the band.

At the time, for that full first year, she’d not felt like she was part of it, and Aaron wanted to change that, so he wrote that song for her to sing, and it was as they were in recording session that it struck her.

She didn’t realise it until everyone turned, that she had started to sing it.

“And in this world... Where nothing else is true... Here I am... Still tangled up in you...”

She stopped at the stares.

May was the first to get up, and with a small smile, spoke, “You know, when you first came aboard, I thought you looked like _Night-Sky_. Turns out, you are her. Though when you introduced us I should have realised that.”

“Where did you get the video?”

Ward shrugged and spoke up, “I recorded it.”

“Oh come on, Skye... let us watch the rest, Please?” Simmons interrupted, looking very earnest, and getting the reason for the glare she was sending at Ward.

Fitz spoke up, “You know, considering it was all written just to make money, you got really good emotional reaction from what little we heard over Wards’ Comms. But it kept breaking up and we couldn’t make out most of the words...” he trailed off at the heated glare from Skye...

Simmons gasped. “Fitz! The band is well known for their songs having actual meaning! They’re not in it for the money... well not just that at any rate. I heard that one of the songs that got leaked a few years ago but never officially released was written because the lead singer missed his daughter... though I find it odd that he changed her name for the song.”

Fitz looked at her, “What, Zoe Jane?”

Only Coulson and May caught Skye’s reaction, her eyes widening and her hands fisting up and starting to shake.

Ward spoke up, “Hey, that was requested last night... odd though, the lead singer, what’s his name, he actually tried to turn it down... Skye sang it though.” He smiled a little, “Did it real justice too, almost like it came from the heart. Some interesting lyrics though, now I think about it... like how she most probably changed a few words since Skye’s, well, Female, and that singer isn’t.”

He looked at simmons, “You said their songs usually have meaning? I think she changed a few for the whole S.H.I.E.L.D. angle. Lines like, ‘I want to hide you, hide you from all the things that this life has in store for you’... sounds ominous. That and in that context, it sounds like Skye’s a mother...” He paused, then shook his head. “Sorry, can’t picture it.”

Coulson and May silently moved to Skye’s side as she clutched her stomach, in obvious emotional pain. Pain May had seen the night before.

“Hey, Skye would be a great mom!” Simmons defended her friend. “Look at how she was with Mike Peterson’s son, Ace.”

“... Point.”

Fitz spoke up, “You know, that provides another context to the first song,... she sang ‘Be Myself Again’...”

The three didn’t notice the absence of Coulson, May or Skye until they’d discussed context of the various songs and went to get the remote from Coulson who had paused it, only to find his seat empty, along with may and skye.

“Hey, where did they go?”

-

May held Skye in her arms, gently rocking the young woman as she sobbed, unable to say a word and yet both the agents before her had gotten the message.

“Skye?” Coulson spoke up softly, and passed her more tissues... “When did you write that song?”

Steadily calming down now, brought back to the present, she answered. “... before I met Andrew and Jo...”

“They told me you met when you were sixteen.” May asked, pale.

She nodded... and looked at the calendar, then answered. “She... she’s ten. You know her birthday.”

They looked between each other.

“... The day I came aboard.”

Coulson froze as he’d done the math. “Skye, you once told me that you were, far as you knew, born in 89. Zoe would have been born when you were, what... Fourteen?”

She nodded... and sighed. “... I... they wouldn’t let me keep her. Fourteen, in the foster system, and the... the timing, that I was staying with a heavily religious _isolationist_ family at the time I was... fertilized...” She froze and Coulson could see something in her eyes... remembered terror.

“You were raped?”

“... I don’t know. The week that the doctors said I was... I couldn’t have been. They... They locked me in the bad room...” She told them, voice dwindling to a whisper. “I was given food through a little hatch, rules are no contact, length of stay depends on the infraction... I was there for three weeks... I couldn’t have been, and as much as I enjoyed seeing the police arrest them... for all the thigns they’d done, the one thing that got the cops to act? I just _know_ it wasn’t them... I... I managed to get proof... though I didn’t... didn’t tell any one.”

May had to ask, “You had a DNA test done?”

Skye nodded, and began, “I... I think tht that’s how... how _they _found me. I had to send to a lab, only... the results caught peoples attention. Not just the babies’... but mine...”

She looked up at them... “Human DNA has what, twenty or so chromosome pairs? Twenty three I think?...” She gulped... “Please... you can’t tell _anyone_ about this...”

They nodded... and she continued.

“When I was young, I was... weird. I learned quicker, and while I’d be the same size for _ages_, when I did have a growth spurt, it was painful... bone fracturing painful a few times... but quick. I once broke an arm, and another kid my age broke hers. We, uh... were up to no good.” She smiled a little at their amused looks. “Her break wasn’t as bad as mine. They told me I’d be in a cast for five months, Jessie only for two. And while Jessie did have her cast for two months... I only had mine for six weeks, before the doctors removed it, unnecessary. They tried to get blood samples, but I was too scared of needles to let them, and, retrospectively fortunate for me, they’d not said I _had to_, quite the opposite, and so my guardian stopped them from forcing the issue.”

“When I ran the tests, I had to _hack_ to get to the results... the lab refused to disclose them to me as I was a ‘minor’.” She snorted. “But the number they contacted in lieu of a guardian? Yeah, they were up to no good. So I Hacked into my own file... and my daughters’...” She gulped.

“They found unidentified DNA... and not just a marker or two, like a, forgotten waste DNA that exists in everyone. I’m talking... I didn’t have human parents.”

The two were wide-eyed at that.

... “I’m, uh... I think I’m an alien.... Kinda like, Spock... actually.”

“How so?”

“... conflicting elements of my Genetics. The way parts combined, others stayed separated. So Half one species, half the other... Whichever species. And that’s of interest to lots of people, not just S.H.I.E.L.D. but the call had already been made, and not to S.H.I.E.L.D...

“They came for me a week before I was due.... They... “ She gulped, and started to hyperventilate as she stuttered “they took... they took her. They took my baby,...”

-

She’d calmed down shortly after, and continued.

“I... I coulnd’t deal. My daughter had been abducted, and I’d been left in no state to do anything except lie, rest and recuperate. At that point, I refused all medical help... so it took a while before I could even styand on my own two feet. And I was still an emotional wreck... Music helped me, and I... I wrote a song. A month later I erased my entire identity from the internet, and answered an ad for backup singer they’d posted in a newspaper five states over. They helped me begin to discover myself... Andrew taught me some things, since the people who took Zoe were dangerous. I... I told them, and it took bringing out, uh... my, Alien-ness, to prove I wasn’t a nutter. They helped me stay secret, mostly writing songs for them, some backing tracks, and, for a while, never performing live, citing illness.

“I left the group because I found a lead... not for Zoe, but for me. The place where... _two shield agents_ found me as a baby...”

Coulson raised an eyebrow, as did May.

“in 1989...”

“Interesting... May and I once found....”

He went silent, wondering...

“At some kind of crash site, In China.”

She was silent for a minute, before speaking up, “I... ever since coming aboard, I wanted to ask... but I... I couldn’t get it out. I didn’t expect... to be trusted. To be treated like...”

May spoke up, “Like family.”

“Its... overwhelming at times. Then I think of Zoe and I... I try to treat it like the mission it’s supposed to be... Get into S.H.I.E.L.D., find out what those two agents know then disappear before the mole discovers me.”

... “Mole?” Coulson asked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> re-read after posting it, forgot I'd thrown in 'I'm an alien' and '*kinda* met coulson and may before'. and pretty sure that the 'mole' was going to be garret.


	2. Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post-The Winter Soldier and AoS Season 1.
> 
> Fitz was in a coma from the brain damage. May was hurt way more than in canon fighting deathlok's that didn't need the incentives program, and Coulson got seriously hurt too.
> 
> Then Skye shows a few hidden talents... Basically a 'skye decided that since Coulson and May couldn't, she would recreate SHIELD.' story.

_Aftermath_

Skye looked between the members of the team gathered in the medical bay.

Coulson was actually tied down to his bed, medical-grade clean cushions keeping a soft but snug fit. The canula fed him oxygen, and his eyes were covered because light was hurting him, somehow.

Next to him, May was glaring at nothing while Simmons saw to the womans numerous injuries sustained fighting several of the ‘deathlok’ enhanced soldiers – those who didn’t need the incentives program, that is. Serious ones, there was no chance she’d return to the field. And given recent issues, she looked like she didn’t want to return to anything.

The third bed held Fitz, deep in a coma. While she tended to May, Simmons kept shooting very worried looks at them all.

They needed to go, with the US Government coming down hard on S.H.I.E.L.D., and their assault on the cybertek facility and rescuing generals in the process, it was only a matter of time before they were targeted.

“Trip, You know how to fly a plane?” Skye asked suddenly, and Trip, startled, shook his head.

“Sorry, Quinjets yes, but my last experience with a plane any bigger wasn’t as big as the bus, and I crashed. If we survive the attempt, May would kill me.”

May sent a glaring look at him but stayed silent.

Skye just grinned and left.

Trip followed her through to the cockpit, and started to protest as she sat in the pilot seat.

“Girl, you can’t-“

“Many nights when I couldn’t sleep, I’d come up here and just look outside, that and watch May.” She turned and winked. “How hard can it be?”

With that he watched incredulously as she appeared to not know what she was doing as she flipped switches and turned dials, then the engines started.

“Girl, it can be VERY Hard!”

He felt the rumble, though it was oddly smooth as the sight outside revealed their slow ascent, then the sensation of speed – starting vertical but smoothly transitioning with the sights – made it known they were moving, and nary a shake to show for it.

“You can fly?”

“One of my foster fathers liked flying, and took me a few times, but money issues meant it was mostly on flight simulators. I kept the simulation program he used, which is Military Grade, even to today’s standards. After coming aboard the bus, I kinda got some DLC for the program...”

“What, like, new airports, new planes, and they’re S.H.I.E.L.D. airports, S.H.I.E.L.D. planes?”

She smirked as the final transition phase locked the engines in place, their airspeed passing what would, on the ground be the point of lift forces overtaking gravity, and not require the nose actually being pointed upwards and the engines in regular position downward to gain altitude.

She flicked a few more switches, locking in on the autopilot a basic ascent program, and worked one of the systems to create and input a route for the autopilot to follow. She answered him five minutes later, by getting up, giving him a grin.

-

“Agent Blake.”

Felix turned around, and saw a pair of ghosts. “Skye, Trip?”

Skye waved, and Trip moved forward and shook his hand. “Good to see you alive and free, man.”

“You too. What are you doing here?”

Skye just smiled for a second, and answered, “Well, Agent Blake, I was wondering if you would like to Join the new S.H.I.E.L.D.” His face darkened a little, but she held up a hand. “When we put a list together of the agents we wanted to reform S.H.I.E.L.D. with, your name was top of the list. And we’re not going to do what the original S.H.I.E.L.D. did during its’ own formation, that of recruiting ‘former’ enemy scientists and soldiers. You’re the first person I’ve approached.”

“I take it that Coulson decided to step up and take command, and May, Ward and Fitzsimmons are all in?”

Skye’s own face darkened a little, and Trip answered for her. “Coulson was badly injured, taking down Cybertek which turned out to be Agent Garrett’s HYDRA operation. May swore that it was her last mission and with Coulson, disappeared shortly after. Fitz, is in a coma, and Simmons is spending all her time trying to help him.”

“Ward?” Blake asked, curious on the omission.

“He was HYDRA.” Skye answered flatly, gazing into the distance for a moment, before she shut down and Blake realized he was looking at the new (but not improved) Agent Skye. “Right now, S.H.I.E.L.D. is just Me and Trip. I’d like to make it a list of _three_ people. You in?”

He just looked at her, keeping the surprise off his face at seeing the pure look of command. “We’ll need a base of operations, resources, vehicles...”

“We’ve still got the Bus, I’ve already created a security net so Satellites ignore it. It’s not fool proof, but it should help us avoid being tracked when needed.” Skye commented.

-

_Two Weeks Later_

Skye flitted in between the stacks of cargo boxes, her dark grey and Black Combat uniform with hood up melding her into the darkness. A sounbd, and she leapt up, using pallets as handholds as needed, and stopped once she’d gotten from the tallest stack onto the steelwork of the building, and hugged the large I-Beam and watched and listened.

And so it went for hours, she’d move, she’d hide every so often, then move when people disappeared.

Then she sealed herself inside a crate, and carefully put on a breather mask attached to a gas tank, and used meditation techniques to slow her heart rate, breathing.

-

The light hurt for only a short time, as she re-adjusted from the pitch black of being inside a cargo crate. She’d felt weird being with the silver object that had been inside, but no different. She didn’t notice the Kree Diviner was different, that during her sleep in transit, it had opened, then closed.

She went to another crate, and got out her equipment, silenced weapons of different varieties, blades – throwing knives, daggers.

She moved toward the room exit, and noted that it was a ships’ hatch door.

-

_The Bus_

“Where is Skye?” Simmons asked, entering the command centre. Blake and Trip looked between each other, and then at her and shrugged.

Blake answered, “She’s on a mission, we found intel regarding HYDRA having hijacked a boat, she went to check it out. Last check in, she informed us she was going to sneak aboard with cargo in a supply run. Why, what’s wrong?”

“... It’s Fitz... He’s awake.”

-

_The Boat_

Her tablet was now linked with the ship’s network, and she had goggled at what she’d discovered. Instead of Destruction, though, she was changing her mind, she wanted to do something else. To hijack the ship.

She knew where to hide it, if she succeeded too.

It was easy to signal a radio silence protocol, and fake it being sent down from their Leader, thankfully who wasn’t aboard.

Then, she just had to eliminate the forty people aboard. Thank god the Helicarrier’s security system monitored where everyone was, and she had the skills to disable the elements of that same system that would notify HYDRA that she was aboard, and killing their men.

-

_Two Days Later_

She smirked as she approached the Bus, and activated docking procedures, ran through everything, then opened the hatch in the floor and descended into the Bus.

When she got to the main level, stepping down the spiral stairs, she couldn’t help the giddy feeling seeing Simmons looking happy to see her... Or laugh at the hug the scientist quickly gave her.

“Hey, only been gone three days...”

“I know its just... Fitz’ woke up for a bit...” Simmons spoke, and then launched into a rapid-fire talk about recent events aboard the Bus.

It took ten m inutes before she got into the command centre, and watched as Simmons left to return to Fitz’ side.

“So, how’d it go?” Trip asked, him and Blake both curious over her lack of communication on the mission.

“Pretty Well, their Hydra Cell is gone.”

“Gone?” Blake asked. “As in, they hid, or...”

“Dismantled. No more. Kaput.” Skye clarified, sort of. “They were based on a boat with some, impressive, capabilities. I snuck aboard, dealt with the crew, and ensured HYDRA in general couldn’t use the boat anymore, took a while, though. It’s surprisingly hard to find an iceberg that’s capable of the job. Who’da thought. Anyway, it had some Stealth Quinjets aboard, most of them I programmed into their autopilot to head for a remote area, land, and remain out of sight under lockdown, and flew one myself, here.”

She hesitated, and they could see the conflict with her.

“Blake, I’d like you to take the Quinjet, we need more than just us. If y ou could scout around any S.H.I.E.L.D. facilities, see if they’re under the control of government armies, HYDRA, or still loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D. No contact, though.”

He nodded, and left.

Trip had to ask, “How you doin’, girl?”

“I liked the Night-Night guns so much because I didn’t have the whole, killing people, thing...” Skye bit her lip a little, and moved into the hug he pulled her in for. “But I knew, going in, it was kill or be killed. I had to... I had to pretend, they’re all Ian Quinns, ready, willing and fully intent on putting two in my stomach.”

-

Three Weeks Later

She glared at their captor.

“You heff been a thorn in my side, Miss Skye. A very sharp, piercing thorn, to be sure, but that is all. You really think yourself capable of bringing down HYDRA, you and your non-existent army?” The false-accented person with the voice-syntheziser that made for a very odd voice, “You will pay for your presumption of course. But first...”

A gun was placed against Trip’s head, and though she wanted to scream, the neck brace prevented that. The loud bang, and hearing a dead body fall to the floor...

Her vision went red. She glared, even as he then turned the gun to point at her.

“Good Bye, Miss Skye.”

Then she felt it. She wanted to destroy this piece of shit. She wanted to destroy everything.

Her captors people shot looks at one another, the room having begun to shake, massively. So bad, that fixtures fell to the floor, then bits of the room, the roof... then they disappeared as the floor gave way.

Even as she fell through as well, she wished everything to continue, to keep destroying.

Even as she felt something pierce her head, something tug along her face.

-

She crawled out of the rubble, to find a Quinjet hovering over the disaster site, a black figure walking towards her. She tried to fight as the figure picked her up, but the voice was familiar.

“It’s alright, Skye, I’ve got you. I’ve got you.”

She melted into the man’s arms, and lost consciousness.

-

_The Playhouse_

“You’ve done pretty well, with having a highly-recognizable plane as a mobile base of operations, and just you, and four others. I’ve followed your progress, it’s a lot more than many have accomplished, and those had at least twenty times the number of people.”

She would have glared, but the speaker was on her right side, and with her head in the bracing while she recovered in a medical bed, she couldn’t look.

That’s probably why he stood there. Because she was blind in that side.

Then a hand with a black box appeared. “How would you like to become the new Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.?”

-

_Two Months Later_

_‘Mission Accomplished, returning to the Barn’_.

“Acknowledged, Mockingbird.” Skye spoke as she stood at firm attention in the control room of the Bus. On her blind side, she heard Blake move about, tapping away at stuff. “Oh and Mockingbird, Just so you know, I’m not assigning you and Hunter to the same team on any missions, anymore. I don’t want a repeat of Barcelona.”

‘_Hey, Barcelona was NOT our fault-‘_ Bobbi Morse’ voice cut off and Skye internally smirked to herself, having cut the transmission herself.

“Felix, status on Hartley?”

He stepped into view across from her seat at the table. “She’s found May, but reports that she rejected the offer. As for Coulson, he’s doing a lot better, and seems to be amenable to returning once he’s a hundred percent, but May is vetoing the idea of him returning any earlier. Both are however, showing caution since you told Hartley she couldn’t tell them who sent her.”

-

_A week later_

She sighed as she looked out through the small door window at the guards assembled to take her down in her attempt to rescue the ‘old team’.

The room was full of guards, just waiting for her.

She grinned, and for a moment, sensed the packet of explosives she’d left, sans any typical detonator.

Focus...

BOOM

As the room shook, she kicked in the door and fired at her first target, and was already tracking on the second with a second pistol...

-

Coulson and May both watched while tied up, as the masked figure breached the main hall and proceeded to wipe the floor, almost literally at points, with the two dozen guards.

When all was said and done, the figure disappeared, only to reappear as a shadow at the door, and the two guards that were with them were clearly shitting themselves...

“...I can’t...” One spoke, and put his gun down. As the other turned his gun on the first, a shot killed the second guard, coming through the door.

“Kick the gun over, and put your hands behind your head.” The cloaked figure spoke, and Coulson and May shared a look – it was Skye, and she is badass.


	3. Halloween Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a little one where Skye knew Natasha Romanoff and Maria Hill since she was little. and though not an actual Agent of Anything, had the skills.
> 
> Also it's a Skye/Natasha Pairing...

** _Halloween_ **

“I look ridiculous!”

Skye kept her laughter inside, just giving her co-worker (of sorts) a grin, and shook her head, as simmons stepped around the partition hiding her clothes, and Skye lost the grin in shock.

“What?”

Skye looked the woman up and down, and had to whistle. “Damn, Jem, you’re hot!”

The scientist blushed fiercely, and picked at her Halloween costume – she was dressed in full costume as a character from the DC show Arrow, it was fitted, and she was very uncomfortable how the somewhat unrealistic costume moved with her.

“I don’t feel it.”

“Seriously. Just... tonight, you’re not Jemma Simmons. Just think confident thoughts.”

Jemma just sent her a doubtful look as she hid herself back behind the partition, then came back with a trenchcoat ontop.

“Jemma!”

“Maybe later, but I’m not really comfortable showing my...”

“Assets? Booty? Curves?”

“All of the above... and what about you, aren’t you going to dress up? And why wont you tell us who you’re dressing up as!?”

Skye grinned to herself as she nodded but said nothing.

-

Coulson slowed Lola to a stop at the gate house, and wondered just who it was running the party. The Security on the large estate was pretty top notch from what little he could tell.

“Costume Name?” the guard asked.

“Phil Wilson.” He answered, and flipped the eyepatch over his right down to cover his eye. “Codename Deathstroke...” At that the guard smirked a little.

“DC fan, huh?”

“Not particularly, I’m more of a Captain America Afficionado. But I got outvoted on the Cap suit.”

The guard chuckled, and looked at his passenger.

“Chien Na May.” She rolled her eyes. To phil, she added, “Why am I not surprised that she picked a villain for my costume?”

“Mine apparently is too, don’t forget. And she actually likes me.”

May looked away, “Don’t remind me.”, then something occurred to her. “I’m familiar with the Slade Wilson storyline. He didn’t start out a villain.” She looked a little, uncomfortable for a moment, and from that, he too shifted a bit, the idea of him going down a dark road was, unsettling, though May was the one who had the most free-time and had become a bit of an arrow-head... pun, intentional.

The Guard coughed, and glanced at the SUV behind them, then at the tablet he held. “Alright, scans are clear, you’re good to go. Down the road, second left and to the right.”

Coulson nodded, and pulled off, though he waited a few yards down for the guard to clear Fitz and Simmons who were following in the SUV.

“This is a rich neighbourhood.” May commented. “Secure, too. I’ve counted at least four security measures.”

“Six. Remember Pascal and the-“

“Really, how could I miss that?” May commented, and shot him a small smile as FitzSimmons caught up.

“What I’m wondering, is does Skye know someone who was invited, or was she invited by whoever is running this party?”

“And why wasn’t Ward invited?” May commented. “Sure, he told us he had plans, but Skye didn’t even ask about him, either she didn’t want to make a fuss, or something else.”

“Really?” He spoke as he pulled into the second driveway on the left, and when the long driveway surrounded by shrubbery forked, took the right. “Maybe he told her before?”

“No, He got asked to join Garrett’s new partner on mission last second. No way Skye knew that. No, there’s something there. She’s... Wary, around him.”

“Really?”

“Not when you’re there, she’s good at acting like nothing is wrong, but... when she thinks she’s alone with each of us... With you, it’s like she’s a little kid seeking approval. With Simmons, she’s... like an older sister, helping her younger sister learn the ways of the world. Same with Fitz, although I have caught them talking about girls a few times... I don’t think Fitz got many chances for that sort of talk before.” She smirked at Coulson, and added, “I’m pretty sure Simmons would melt down if Skye tried to talk about girls with her.”

“Wait, Skye...?”

“Pretty sure.”

“Huh. And with you?”

“... I... don’t know. We haven’t spent time alone. I’m pretty sure I scare her a bit, but a different scared. She’s not _afraid_ or wary of me. If she was, she wouldn’t be, well, Skye, so much.”

Coulson pulled into a spot – absently noting the multitude of vehicles, some high end sports cars, some SUVS, and a short walk up to a large house, nigh-on-mansion, lit and noise coming from it.

“So, how _is_ she with Ward?”

“Like I said, Wary.” She shook her head and swiftly got out of Lola, and made sure her white-hair wig was affixed properly, and straightened her business suit out. She smirked as Coulson set his own “ASIS” Uniform straight – similar yet, more formal and complete compared to the version Slade had on the show. “When she thinks no one’s looking, it’s like she’s trying to figure him out.” She lost her smile. “And I can’t help doing the same. I can see it in her eyes sometimes. To her, something about him isn’t adding up.”

“She notices things.” He said, and couldn’t help the little amount of pride from getting into his tone. “Wouldn’t be the first time she noticed something that we missed.” He turned and saw FitzSimmons leaving the SUV and checking their own costumes, with Simmons paying a bit more attention that Coulson thought was warranted.

May followed the gaze, and then sent him a sarcastic look. “They still don’t see it? That Skye chose Thea and Roy for their costumes for a reason?”

“I’m pretty sure they don’t spend all of their off hours watching Television, unlike a certain Agent I could name.”

-

The four gathered at the door, and Coulson pressed the buzzer.

It didn’t take long for the door to open, though nothing was said as their greeter stared at him in shock, and he her in turn.

“De-“

“_What the hell are you doing here?_” Commander Hill spoke harshly, yet low, pushing the group to one side as she shut the door... “Better yet, how the hell did you find me? And... okay, what the hell are you wearing?” At that, she spotted May, and Maria frowned at the white hair, then caught the two scientists... “Are... Are you dressed Slade Wilson? Wait, you’re here for my party?”

Coulson stared for a few more seconds, then answered. “I was invited by, apparently, one of your guests, She gave me the address but conveniently left out the bit about, well.... you... and our costumes. Yes, and yes.”

Maria just clutched her head. “Who invited you?”

“That Rising Tide hacker you tried warning me about, though why you would when it seems you know her...”

“Does this hacker have a name?”

“She goes by Skye.” May answered.

Maria’s eyes widened. “Skye? _Skye_ is your hacker?”

“So she didn’t just hack her way in here, then?” Fitz commented.

“No... Oh for... I’ve known skye since _before I worked for S.H.I.E.L.D_.” Maria rubbed her temples, and with that action, May noticed the costume. “Great, this is just great. Past and future collide in one big headache.”

The team of four shared shocked looks, though Coulson couldn’t help a little giggle come out at the absurdity.

“What is with the Arrow theme?” May asked. “Let me guess... Nyssa?”

Maria opened an eye but shook her head in the negative. “please. I’m not the second in command of anything tonight. I’m nameless female assassin number three.”

“So... going to let us in?” Simmons asked, nervously.

“You three...” Maria looked at the two scientists and May... “I’m not sure on Coulson. Got a Deathstroke mask on you? There _are_ people here that aren’t level 7, you know.”

“Skye said she’ll bring it, apparently it was... dirty...” Coulson sent a suspicious look away from the house, getting the point that he figured out her play.

“Well, she didn’t.”

“She’s here, already?”

Maria nodded, and opened the door.

“I’ll just grab something for you to put on, but yeah.”

Maria disappeared, and when she reappaeared and passed Coulson a balaclava, she commented, “When she said she was infiltrating a small hacking community to stop them leaking intel, she made it sound like a group a lot _smaller_ than the Rising Tide. Like, a dozen people or so, rather than the hundreds. If I had known it was _skye_ you picked up,” She sent Coulson and May both a glare, “I’d have told you to trust her immediately. And not to buy the ‘I don’t trust S.H.I.E.L.D.’ act.”

“She’s an Agent?” May asked, incredulous.

“No, we never even trained her. Apparently, we’re not ‘her speed’.” Maria rolled her eyes, then commented, “How come she asked four, not five? Does she not get on with Ward?”

“When did she ask you?” Coulson asked.

“Two, three weeks ago... Why?”

May answered. “Later. Where’s skye... and what is her costume anywa-“

She was interrupted by cheers from a crowd, along with shouts of ‘get her’ and such like you’d hear from an audience to a boxing match, and the group raced out through the kitchen to the backyard.

“Oh... not again.” Maria muttered, and the team couldn’t help agree with another muttered comment that followed.

“Uh... Is that, Natasha?” Coulson whispered.

“What... but... she _never accepts_ my invites...” Maria muttered as the five stared at where, Natasha Romanoff, dressed up as Nyssa Al Ghul, fought another figure – this one dressed as Ta-er al-Safar, aka The Canary, aka Sara Lance. Only the two figures had modified the costumes – while clearly those, with the outfits, mask for Sara, and such, both wore the Widows Bite weapons that Natasha had, both held the batons, and both held the additional occupied holster rigs with dual pistols.

The two figures fought, fast, with skill, and of the team only May and Coulson could identify that Natasha was holding back.

Then the two broke away from the fight, holding poses while they breathed a little heavily... and the keen eye of a specialist spotted something.

“Wait, is that _Skye_?” May asked.

Maria looked at her curious, “Yeah. What is it?”

May was _pissed_. “She’s been pretending that she doesn’t know how to fight.”

Maria looked surprised, then shrugged. “Good. Since she didn’t invite Ward I’m guessing she doesn’t trust the team as a unit yet? Then she’s protecting herself. I didn’t even know she could throw a punch for _years_ before she trusted that side of herself to me.”

Skye spotted them then, and suddenly, the team stared as Skye pulled Natasha along towards them.

“Hey, May, Fitz, Simmons... AC.” She winked at the balaclava, then she looked at Maria...and back at the team.

“Reintroduction I think. Guys, I believe you know Maria, she kind of adopted me as a little sister when I was still a teenage girl confused about her feelings.” She looked at Natasha, “Tasha, this is the S.H.I.E.L.D. team I was telling you about. Leo Fitz, dressed as Roy Harper aka Arsenal. Engineer. Jemma Simmons, Dressed as Thea Queen aka Speedy... Biochem. Melinda May, our pilot-“

“Pilot?” Tasha interrupted, and gave Melinda an incredulous look. “You’re just a pilot? And here I thought you’d gone back to field duty because you were bored.”

“Ahem...” Skye interrupted.

“And this is the team boss –“

Maria interrupted, “Skye, maybe you should address the elephant in the room. Why isn’t Ward here?”

Skye grinned. “I thought the elephant was keeping Coulson’s survival a secret.”

...

Skye was sure she could hear a pin drop...

“Since when was that a secret?” Tasha asked, and everyone could see the confusion on her face.

Coulson pulled his mask off, and spoke, “You knew I was alive?”

“... Yes. Thor told us when he got back from securing Loki in an Asgardian prison. Apparently the stabbing thing was part of his plan to give us something to ‘avenge’. When Thor told us that Heimdahl saw your revival, but that you would take a while to actually recover, I figured you’d get in touch once you were on your feet. I’m guessing you didn’t because Fury decided to be his typical asshole paranoid self?”

Coulson nodded... and then he hugged the woman.

“So, Skye... where did you learn to fight like that?” May asked.

Tasha grinned. “I taught her.”

The team blinked.

“Okay... How long have you two known each other?” Simmons asked.

The two in question whispered audibly, “What, twelve... eleven?”

“I was twelve when the Savokda... Wasn’t it June?”

“... No they sent me to _them_ in February...”

“guys?” Fitz inserted.

Tasha answered, “Since I was twelve...”

“And I was.... Nine, maybe eight? Hard to keep track.”

Coulson stared, then asked, “Weren’t you still with the KGB back then?”

Tasha sighed. “I was on the run from them when we met, but yeah, officially it was a few months before I ‘convinced’ them to let me go.”

Skye snorted. “Convinced. Understatement of the fricken century.”

“So you met, and what, decided to stick around with her foster family?” May asked.

Tasha chuckled, “We crossed paths a few times before we decided to stick together...”

“And I kind of didn’t have anyone anymore, and I couldn’t go back, what with the dead bodies.” Skye sighed. “Nevermind that I’d reported on them to the police. No, blame it all on the foster kid! ‘She should be glad to have such fine upstanding foster parents as the Wards.”

They stared.

“Look, I don’t know if, our Grant Ward is the same Grant Ward I met so long ago, but... if he is... Every time I look at him, I see everything that the young Grant Ward was forced into doing. And not a word more will I say. Either they’re the same person and but he’s not at fault, or they’re not and so it doesn’t matter, I’ll just have to... get over it. Suffice to say, I saw, stuff. Bad stuff. And Ran away. Weeks later, I met Tasha, and we kept meeting, then I got kidnapped and that’s when I found Tasha could kick ass with the best of them, despite being twelve, and since I had been the target of the kidnappers, she took it upon herself to teach me how to defend myself, then how to fight. And it took long enough we had gotten used to each other to the point we saw no reason to part ways when she decided I was ‘good enough’ for a civilian. Tasha had to take some jobs to take care of us, and that’s actually how I met Maria...” Skye and Tasha both started chuckling, while Maria sighed.

“And I’m pretty sure that that’s why Clint decided to try to recruit instead of kill her too, not a year later. Not long after Tasha had turned Sixteen, she got a job to, well, lets just say that she only realised it was an assassination almost too late...”

“That incident also got me on Fury’s Radar, and yeah, I did tell Clint about that.” Maria confirmed. “The idea of an assassin that tried to take it back, and also had a young dependant...” Maria chuckled, “One that I unofficially adopted as my little sis?”

Coulson shook his head, then to Skye, had to ask, “Who are you, really?”

Skye grinned, as Maria groaned. “You’re not-“

Skye looked at Tasha, who nodded her approval.

“Well, I don’t know my birthname, and I will never ever say the one the orphanage gave me out loud... but the normal name I accepted to take when I lived with Maria, for all of three years, was Susanna Hill. Far as the neighbours were concerned, I was her cousin, and had lost my folks.

Tasha coughed.

“Anyway, about three days after it was made legal... I got married. Officially, and all.”

“Married? Oh Skye... who too?”

May was the first to get it, as Skye held back in her excitement, and stared, and got an affirming nod.

“Skye... c’mon don’t leave us in the lurch...”Fitz pleaded.

“Susanna Skye Romanoff.”

...

“Romanoff... As in... Natasha’s last name...” Fitz said flatly, emotionless as he dealt with that implication.

“As in our surname, yes. As in...” Skye firmly planted herself beside Tasha then, and linked arms. Skye then rested her head on Tasha’s shoulder, who likewise on Skye’s head.


	4. Obligatory Time Travel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skye goes back in time, and the consequences of the form that merges her with her 'local-to-the-past' self or somesuch was deaging.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> written in 2017.

_The Future is the Past, the Past is the future..._

“Director, two hours.”

I looked at the clock in a corner of one of the _many_ holographic displays , particularly the year. 2055. Forty years after the fall of the original S.H.I.E.L.D., after the formation of the Second S.H.I.E.L.D. And while the second one lasted half as long as the original, it shouldn’t have.

I strode calmly around the workstations, up onto a balcony and through a door into an elevator.

Seconds later , and I was in _the room_.

S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier designated 084, built around an 0-8-4 hence the out-of-order designation (they were up almost up to two hundred...).

Inside _the room_, once the door was shut, I let off a short burst of intense vibration, bringing everything into view. I wouldn’t have a hope in hell of explaining the science of it, of how the objects were hidden. But they were, and now they weren’t.

One of the objects, stood tall. An obelisk, with kree writing. A Diviner, containing terragen crystals within.

Another, a crystal, contained for now within a shell of Xandarian construction. The Mind stone, altered since it’s existence as a piece of Vision, now jsut a crystal containing Visions’ memories.

These were just one of many objects, alien and otherwise, with power.

I was not here for them. I held a hand out and the room provided. An amalgam of several such objects long ago combined came to my hand.

A gift from Peter Quill, after the defeat of Thanos. It held within trapped energies from all of the infinity stones. Not much, couldn’t even destroy a continent with the contained power, nevermind the planet, like Fury’s S.H.I.E.L.D., like the avengers almost had, so long ago.

But those energies, combined, could do a lot, that didn’t involve destruction.

The object, long, but thin, shaped like a baton, was rather conspicuous. It was painted in a rainbow pattern... and it felt in my hand like liquid and solid, as though squeezing could turn it to two mounds of putty on the floor, yet it retained shape anyway.

I Adjusted my grip, so it was held horizontal between palms, slight compression force stopping it from falling... and then, induced the strongest, yet smallest vibration had ever done.

The vibration, and, sense of it, connected...

-

_The past is the Future, and the Future is the past..._

I stared into the mirror.

Around me, I was back where I wanted to be. My van.

But when I had logged onto my laptop and brought up the date, it was not the target date.

2015 had been the target.

It’s 2010.

But there’s more. From videos on the laptop, I know that until ‘I’ arrived, the local me was the age I should be – 21. But now, I’m...

That damn thing turned me into a preteen.

I’d hazard a guess at about 12, given my height.

And given the blonde hair that I’d once had when I was twelve, I’d say this is the physical me from june-july, ’98. I’ve gained ten more years than expected, or fifteen, given I’m earlier too.

Puberty... yay.

This... this is gonna suck.

-

2011

It’s cold, I’m hungry, and Fury’s a pain in the ass. Half of the safe houses I know about (future knowledge yay!) aren’t even set up yet.

And most of the others are off grid while also having a database of current agents that I can’t get access to, so I can’t just hack it, go there and then use that to get inside.

The one I can get to, is the one I dread to go to.

Providence.

And only partly (at first) because of the cold.

The road here destroyed my van.

The path here destroyed my shoes. I loved those shoes.

And if these trees are gonna shake a load of snow down my back again...

“DAMNIT!” I scream out as I arrive at the entrance I remembered, and find a lack of a turret, and at first, I’m frustrated because it looks like Providence hasn’t been setup yet either...

But the rock that is the door...

That...

I close my eyes and let out a very low-range vibration out, my own little personal SONAR... and low behold, it’s here.

I open my eyes and look toward the door, and hope that the protocols I set up, do work with Providence’ systems.

“Skye, Entry passcode Punch The Pirate.”

...

“Welcome, Skye.” The familiar voice speaks, and the door opens.

Hopefully, other voice-activated functions are ready.

“Please inform the caretaker of my arrival, and the need for heat, food, and a debrief.”

“Affirmative.”

-

“Agent Koenig.” I greeted with a smile.

“... Who are you?” He asked, pointing a gun.

“Skye, Level 10 Shadow Agent.”

His eyes went wide, and he stuttered out a passphrase, and I correctly replied the counter.

“Sorry I didn’t call you ahead. I’ve kinda been running off the grid, and can’t pop up just yet.”

“hence coming here.”

-


	5. Skye is a Mother

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The obligatory Skye is a Mother when Team Bus met her story idea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, not _obligatory_, but... you know.

**2001**

This wasn't _quite_ how she imagined life after the orphanage, or life out of the system for that matter...

But it was _necessary_.

No child of hers was going to grow up in the system, experiencing the things she had, and no daughter of hers was going to end up pregnant because the system doesn't care that many of the foster fathers are child molesters.

She knew they wouldn't let her keep the baby. she knew that they'd take her away, and her child _would_ experience much of the same things she had. Too many of _those_ men got away with it because the kids they abused were too scared, and the men themselves too good at hiding the evidence that would get them arrested... and as for the hints that bring about half-assed investigations that _never_ turn up said evidence, well, investigations _never_ bring up said evidence, and after the second or third one they figure the foster kids are just being ungrateful and/or misunderstanding.

They only caught this one, because of the DNA test that was proof. He still tried to say _she_ came onto _him_. But unlike other foster fathers who got caught, this ones' wife turned on him, acting like she'd been _so scared of him_, (never mind that she was almost equally responsible for the abuse in that house). The wife had been happy with him doing what he liked so long as he left no evidence, and look at that, evidence is now growing in the stomach of one Mary Sue Poots.

She knew what the big beating was about the week before she was sent back to the orphanage from that house. He'd known he'd fucked up because of her morning sickness, and tried to 'force' a miscarriage.

She had been too scared and confused and traumatised to say anything until she had been sent to a foster home in a state that had an earlier legal-abortion time limit, and she was deemed to be passed it by doctors... so even if she was moved by the system to another state while she was still legal for that states' abortion laws, she wouldn't be allowed it due to the pregnancy being discovered elsewhere, and it would be classed as 'abortion-tourism' or something.

So she became known as the pregnant 12-year-old foster kid... and some of the houses she'd been to, the foster parents there assumed she was a slut.

The Nuns treated her like she was, even though one psychiatrist foster parent she'd had had diagnosed that, no, really, _she's telling the truth about the molestation, the rape, and she's heavily traumatised_.

No wonder that when she ran away, during her last trimester, that that was the place she ran to. And her once-foster father didn't turn her in, because the proof that the _system doesn't work_ was right there.

He had even told how proud he was that despite her _massive aversion to the male gender_, she still came to him for help. He then used his connections with some seriously powerful groups (but anonymously) to create a new identity for her, and her baby, and ensured she had all the medical help needed.

Sure, she didn't much like going by the fake last name of Garner, posing as his "distant niece", because sometimes that meant that, in public they had to play a level of social interaction that she wasn't comfortable with. Her years in the system may have taught her how to read that he was _a nice guy_ but that aforementioned aversion still affected her. She'd forced herself to go to him, rather than him being the 'sole male she feels comfortable around', because such a person didn't exist, he was just... her only option. He didn't have to tell her that he had figured as much, and his pride for her was her bravery at facing that, and she'd be made stronger for it, eventually.

On the other hand, while the last name wasn't her choice, he did give her the choice of a new given name, almost entirely because he knew she didn't like the one the nuns gave her. So she became Skye Garner, niece of Andrew Garner.

He wasn't acting as her father, he knew that would be a mistake, but, she told him she didn't mind him being her 'Uncle Andrew'.

He was with her the day she gave birth. Andrea Garner was born at 2:17 am on the 19th December, 2001.

-

**2002**

Three weeks later, they came for her. For Andrea. They had noticed, for once in their lives the people who ran the System has _noticed_ that Andrew had mysteriously gained a pregnant niece who was as far along as the missing Mary Sue Poots was.

So Skye ran, took Andrea, and disappeared.

-

**2005**

Living as a preteen mother had been difficult, but she had managed.

Her Uncle Andrew had never known, but Skye had _paid attention_ a lot and then gone and maybe looked at things she shouldn't have, and as a result, the first place she ran to was a safe-house ran for the people he worked with. But it wasn't just any safe-house. It was a _SHIELD_ safe-house.

Finding the guns hadn't been a shock, but nor had it been a relief.

_Pretending_ to be the daughter of the owner the one time an agent actually showed up to use the place for a few days only to find it occupied by a girl and her "sister" who said that her parents were 'away for the week'... well, she wasn't a good liar, but they didn't say anything on account that Skye showed she knew all the lock codes for the safehouse, and figured something way more than just a 'preteen squatter and her alleged-sister' was up.

Skye didn't stick around that Safe-house long after the agent left, but it did give her some things she needed. Access to a lot of things, like the SHIELD-Issue nondescript vehicle that mysteriously disappeared the day they left (once Skye had learned on her own how to drive for no connected reason, really.)

It was funny, but every-other place she stayed at was a SHIELD Safe-house. She figured that, given their part in her ending up in the system, and probably why the system found her at her Uncle's place, they owed her this.

Most were empty, and remained unused by SHIELD during her stays, but there were a few that either already had Agents occupying them, or Agents turned up during her time there.

She got a taste of what SHIELD was actually about from some. But others made her wary.

And for all the male agents, they picked up her aversion pretty damn clearly so kept their distance, thankfully. Skye figured that was probably why some of them said nothing.

Her time in those places, let her raise Andrea quite well.

Andrea was two when Skye decided to stay more permanently in one of the Safe-houses, at that point, Skye looked like a very short adult, and the fact she was by then known in the area as a single mother, they didn't mind. The (female) sheriff of the town was even glad when Skye told her she was sticking around longer. That Sheriff had known the place they were in was a Safe-house, because they were a former Agent who found Skye occupying the place during a standard stock check, and had accepted Skye's story of being in hiding from people who were after her and had tried to take Andrea.

And it was the christmas immediately after Andrea turned three, and was aware enough, that Skye accepted the former agent, turned Sheriff's offer of spending christmas with the woman, who otherwise would have just taken the christmas day shift like she had 'every year since leaving shield'.

Throughout, Skye had kept in Touch with Andrew, even hearing about him having a girlfriend, whom she'd spoken to a few times. Melinda sounded like a right riot, and Skye was kind of sad she wouldn't get to meet her. Melinda had told her the same.

Not a week went by that she didn't talk to her 'uncle', and almost every-other that she then talked to the woman who had captured her uncles' heart.

That christmas being the first time she would celebrate it herself (the christmas with Andrew didn't count, despite his effort as she was still in the maternity ward that day), it was special. And it was the first time that she actually let Andrew know her real location, so he could send presents.

The gift that would let them do video calls was special.

The updated ID for her, as Skye Garner, Andrews' niece and mother to Andrea Garner was oddly more special.

The following year's christmas, more so. Melinda had also sent presents.

-

**2008**

It had been six years and a few months, since she'd seen Andrew in person. But as good as it felt to actually meet after so long, it was _Andrea_'s reaction that had the focus, as the little girl just ran up to him shouting 'Uncle Andy!'. The last three years, they'd spoken often enough over video call that Andrea had been asking _a lot_ when she'd get to meet her uncle.

She didn't know that he wasn't actually her uncle. It had been embarrassing enough when Andrea, knowing what the different connections between family members were at that point, figured that that meant Andrew was Skye's brother, and Skye had to explain that actually, Andrew was Skye's uncle and therefore her 'Grand Uncle'... even though that was, kind of, a lie.

Legally, true. Afterall, it's not a fake ID when the ID that _basically_ means Andrew is her uncle, was issued by government offices.

He had been planning to visit next christmas, when Andrea turned seven, but the early visit...

Andrew explained about Melinda, and that she'd even asked for a divorce earlier that day (hence the sudden visit). It also explained why Melinda hadn't been in the calls lately, and that why the last one was so awkward.

Andrew needed the temporary distraction, and had known it, hence allowing Andrea to pull him along to their home that was still technically a Safe-house. One that was currently being used by another agent even.

Skye just laughed when, while Andrea was trying to show Andrew her collection of dolls (that he was responsible for), Andrew told her that SHIELD had settled on naming it "The Homestead", because a few agents who came and went had said that it felt like 'home'.

She'd already heard it called that before, but hadn't quite realised they were _naming_ it. Or that, she was kind of responsible after welcoming one agent with "welcome to the homestead. Ignore the toys please, Andrea is still learning how to pick up after herself."

Telling about how the _Director_ had visited not a few weeks ago, and that Andrea had asked why Fury's parents called him "Director", and that it was an odd name, Andrew was glad he got to laugh too.

-

**2010**

Christmas that year was extra special.

On the one hand, Andrea was upset that this time, her Uncle Andrew wasn't coming. On the other, several of her "uncles" and "aunts" were. Uncles and Aunts that Andrea herself had basically adopted from the various agents that had been to The Homestead, the ones that returned and generally kept in touch, though none of them nearly as often as Andrew.

While on the day it would just be Skye, Andrea and Sheriff Ripley, as it usually was, the preceding week was filled with the two-dozen agents visiting for a few hours. Last year had been similarly special, but not even half as many agents had been around, and less than half again the previous year, when Andrew _had_ visited like promised.

It amused Skye that every few hours, Andrea would, trying to sound serious, proclaim an Aunt or Uncle as her 'favourite', with the others as 'close seconds', and ignore any protests of "that's not how it works".

The reason for the uptick, was because whilst, since it was a safe-house, it wasn't on record as a SHIELD asset, getting a pseudo-official designation for which it was then referred to in all documents, more Agents ended up using it as a sort of recovery way station, for the inbetween time where an Agent is released from hospital, cleared for light work, but isn't quite ready for normal duties like missions and what-not. Over time, Skye noticed that the "repeat visitors" used that as an excuse to just visit for a day or two.

Skye sometimes even got to spend time on her own, because they insisted that she looked exhausted (which being a single mother of a precocious little girl as smart as Andrea was really is exhausting, mentally and physically) and would 'babysit' Andrea, careful though not to use that specific word because the first and only time the do around the girl, she proclaims (quite vociferously) that she's not a baby.

By the time Andrea turned nine, that uptick in the presence of SHIELD Agents was such that half the time, there were at least two agents , air-quotes, "recovering from recent injuries", half of the other half of the time, more than two, and a half of the other half of the other half, one agent still about, the rest of the time, it was just the two of them. And that was a lot of time not alone.

Andrea loved it, because many of those Agents took it upon themselves to teach her things, and gave Skye a dose on how smart the "typical" agent actually is, and the large breadth of knowledge the field agents actually need, though most of the time they weren't PhD-level academically. And Andrea _Loved_ learning new things, and Skye suspected that part of it was because Skye never let her go to normal school, instead home-schooling her. Skye never wanted Andrea to 'suffer' school, and she'd been to too many schools, public and private, during her time in the system, to ever trust the school system to teach Andrea.

Another reason Andrea loved it, was because they also taught Andrea and Skye gymnastics, and other physical activities that Skye didn't do much if anything of, what with the whole, foster system and then on-the-run-with-her-baby-girl thing.

But this christmas, other than the sheer number of those agents who dropped any pretenses and outright visited to _see them_, what was so special, to both Skye and Andrea, was that several agents had gotten together to investigate just why the hell a teenaged-mom was living in a SHIELD Safe-house, and as a result, they were both now free-and-clear. They didn't _have_ to stay there, because now, Child Services would _never_ take Andrea away from Skye. Though those agents did practically beg them to stay in the Homestead, as it was the two of them that gave the place its' name. And As far as SHIELD was concerned, as officially as it could be in regard to a Safe House, Skye was officially on the pay role as "Caretaker of the Homestead", with hazard pay on top of that for the duration of any stay by any Agent... and it stacks, so a week with two agents is the same as two individual weeks of one agent.

She also got her medical license as a nurse as a gift... which probably explained some of those tests she'd been talked into doing. Apparently, having free access to a SHIELD database of knowledge, and lots of incentive in the form of the occasional actually-injured agent, meant that she had studied to the point of earning it for real.

Only some of the tests. She still didn't get why they talked her into the occasional science or math test.

With the job of Caretaker, came a badge and ID card, listing her name as Skye Garner, along with all the requisite documents and the bank card so she had access to that money she had earned staying there. Andrea didn't get why that mattered to Skye so much, but the other agents knew that Skye had had a hell of a time both trying to raise Andrea, and do enough paying work in the town to let them live comfortably, even if it meant occasionally selling off things from the homestead whenever she needed the extra cash, items like sofas that SHIELD would shortly replenish, and mark the goods she'd sold as 'damaged beyond fit for purpose'.

Just because she hadn't been paying the household bills - rent, utilities - nor the other bills like school fees, didn't mean she didn't need to work, basic things like the food had to come from somewhere, and the constant presence of the two of them had already outmatched the "expected" monthly food requirements that SHIELD sent, via Sheriff Ripley. By Officially declaring it a Safe-House with an In-residence staff, automatically a lot of what Skye did, she no longer had to pay for.

It also meant she could afford new books, and get Andrea new clothes instead of buying old used ones from charity shops. New toys, instead of old discarded ones.

And the hefty back-pay because her role as the paid Caretaker of The Homestead had been backdated all the way to when they first moved in... She even bought a new car, some camping supplies and was able to take Andrea on the little vacation that one Agent had talked them into doing between Christmas and New Years, pointing out that vacation days at SHIELD had unlimited rollover. So the twenty days that all agents had every year, any unused days got _added_ to the next years' pool. Skye, technically "working for SHIELD", now had a lot of "vacation days". _Three months_ worth. And Given her role, declaring a vacation meant that Skye and Andrea got _free travel_ to _anywhere_ in the world, no questions asked... and under escort to their destination and back. Afterall, she's the caretaker of a _Safe House_. Those have special meaning already for SHIELD agents. the ones with caretakers are even more so, for what benefits having a caretaker means to an agent.

Probably explains why so many of the agents got so attached to them both.

Skye didn't have the heart to tell the agents just _what_ it was she'd been doing to earn what little money she was making by that point, and how _good_ with computers she was to the point that she could have set it all up that way herself, had she thought of it and wanted it. But with Andrea to think about, she couldn't just say _no_.

The agent who handed her that gift though, had this odd knowing look.

Skye still wondered if Agent Romanoff knew she'd been hacking for the Rising Tide, and just didn't care, or really hadn't a clue, or anywhere in between.

-

**2012**

Not long after the news had exploded with the events of New York, The Homestead gained several visitors.

Agent Romanoff had been injured some during the events, though in public she played it like she hadn't been hit _way too many times_ by the Chitauri, who were faster and stronger than the typical human.

In the privacy of the Homestead, she'd relaxed, and Skye had had to catch the woman who was clearly running on fumes.

Agent Barton, though not physically injured, Skye had hacked her way into learning what happened to him while the two had rested on a sofa and discovered that he'd been mind-controlled into fighting against SHIELD on the Helicarrier, and there were several confirmed fatalities on the damaged vessel. It hadn't taken much thought to call Doctor Garner, and he had arrived not long after.

Mere days later, before either were going to 'clear' either agent to leave (because as both Caretaker of The Homestead and a licenced SHIELD nurse, she can do that), the Director of SHIELD showed up.

He didn't even blink at Skye's presence, and said nothing about Andrea whilst Skye and Andrew spoke of the pair of agents recovery, but did raise an eyebrow when Skye suggested that Barton have extended leave, not just for his health - physical _and_ mental, but also so that his friends had a chance to make sure other agents didn't blame Barton for the deaths of the agents on the Helicarrier. And if he didn't have family, she didn't mind him staying.

Two days later, Barton was gone, officially on an extended leave of absence, and Andrew returned home, as Skye didn't need help with Romanoff. Romanoff followed three days later... and once she was gone, Fury returned.

They had a long talk. Fury revealed he had known she'd been using their safe-houses all along, partly because of Andrew calling in some favours. He had done nothing, because he knew all along that she had to run because it was, indeed, because of SHIELD that Child Services tried to take Andrea back at the start of 2002. He even had Ripley sending in reports, though it didn't take long before Ripley stopped sending them, and told him she was no threat. And he personally signed off on that little gift Romanoff gave her, christmas of 2010. Then he revealed, that he knew she was hacking for the Rising Tide, and that the group - unknown to her - had begun targeting SHIELD in the aftermath of the Battle of New York. He then tells her he as an offer, one she can refuse point-blank and remain here as the Caretaker... but his offer doesn't necessarily mean she stops being the Caretaker, either. He needs someone who can 'keep an eye' on the Rising Tide, hold them back from doing anything that would warrant a proper response from SHIELD, hopefully maybe even make the group a potential 'ally', because SHIELD sometimes needs to not recruit, instead simply ally with people. She correctly deduces that its a fidly jurisdiction issue he's implying on that one.

Two months alter, she sends a reply with Romanoff - she'll do it, on condition that if, as a hacker, she ever has to go somewhere for the Rising Tide and can't take Andrea, he has his best agents look after the girl. Fury shortly responds with that Barton and Romanoff are his best, and that Andrea already 'adopted' them as her 'favourite' Uncle and Aunt, so they're favourable to the occasional babysitting duty, and there are other agents both Skye and Andrea are comfortable with if those aren't free anyway... and Fury even implies he has somewhere Andrea would be safe if none of those are free, and would take Andrea there himself.

-

**2013**

Skye isn't in LA for a Rising Tide thing.

Or A SHIELD thing.

She's on a vacation, with Andrea, when she gets the call from one of the more moderate and careful members of the Rising Tide.

Andrea is with her and Skye sits in front of Mike and Ace at a diner, and after getting Andrea and Ace talking, glad for Andrea to have a kid her own age to talk to for once, starts her little private talk with Mike, who figures her for generic 'superhero' fan.

Andrea is with Ace at his recital when agents grab her from her van.

Yet she shocks them when, upon removing the hood from her head, instead of acting anything like what they expected, she gives them both a hard look, and orders the younger one to give her his phone, so she can make sure her daughter knows she wont be there to pick her up from the recital, and to stay with Ace.

She's pissed off enough about the grab, she doesn't even pretend not to know who they are, naming them quite clearly and using the command-voice she'd picked up from both being a mother to a kid as well as Caretaker of The Homestead and needs to make sure an injured Agent doesn't push themselves too much. Though she'd never met Coulson or Ward, she knows who they are because she didn't want the Centipede thing to interrupt her vacation, so arranged for their presence. She didn't expect them to go after her as a Rising Tide hacker though.

She gets them to release her from the vibranium-lined room, and uses their computer to bring up all the intel she'd already gathered with other members of the Rising Tide who were worried about Centipede... and realising that neither agent knew about it, just takes over the mission, never mind that, according to Coulson, _she_ was the mission.

Seeing May, she barely gives the agent a nod, even as the agent visibly wonders why the hell Coulson is letting Skye run this thing (and the science twins just go with the flow, since Coulson is playing it cool, like he hadn't just been benched as the agent in charge), but not giving any notice that she recognises Skye.

Skye then tells the group that May is going to escort her to her van so she can grab her computer, which has some of her surveillance data she hadn't yet uploaded to SHIELD servers (revealing to all that all of her intel she'd been _storing on shield servers)_, and it's there when Mike arrives with Ace in tow, that May realises that _she knows Skye_, because while she passed off as a resemblance, and didn't want to otherwise think about that time of her life, here's also a twelve year old girl with Mike that _immediately greets the woman with 'Auntie May!'_. And she was 'Auntie May' to only one kid named Andrea, which Skye immediately says after the girls' exclamation.

Skye brings the group in, Andrea distracting Ace from his worries about his Dad (and Skye and May seeing that Andrea is really observant), by asking May about what she's doing at SHIELD lately, and if her presence here meant she wasn't "making Paper Airplanes at the Trisellon!" (Andrea intentionally upping her cuteness to eleven) May _barely_ holds back a smile from that one, and knowing what Andrea is doing, keeping the conversation going all the way to the Bus.

As a result, Mike's little... melt-down occurs on the plane. And Skye just rolls her eyes, grabs one of the Night-Night guns in the lab and hits him with a round, and tells the group that she was supposed to be on Vacation with her Daughter, not sorting out SHIELD's problems. (implying that she does that a lot, even though its the first time.)

Coulson _does_ extend an offer to Skye to stay on the bus, as he's impressed how she handled the whole thing, but Skye tries to turn him down pointing out she's a mother and she needs to get back to her day job. His question of that being a hacker for the rising tide, she shoots down, pointing out that a) that's her night time job, and only because 'fury asked' (being up front that she's _sort of undercover_, but not clear on the details of that) and b) the Tide isn't a terrorist group but more like a bunch of civilians worried about just how much power SHIELD has, and even more worried that SHIELD is abusing that power, which, hello, a valid concern, hence Fury treating them not as a _threat_ but still seriously, because they're still a group that can, in her words, "Make SHIELD Network Security their Bitch." Fury _knows_ he's basically asking Skye to not only keep the Rising Tide on the 'right' side of the line, but also to help them be like, a watchdog to SHIELD, because if SHIELD abuses their own power _beyond_ that line, the Rising Tide totally will reveal it. And Fury would agree with it.

Coulson almost accepts her answer, then has an idea, as he now knows who she is, having heard of her from Melinda and Andrew in the past, and tells Skye that he's sure Andrew wouldn't mind "A week or two" or babysitting. Skye doesn't get why Coulson _wants_ her on the team, but Andrea overheard and basically puppy-dog-eyes Skye into agreeing, because she misses her "Grand-uncle", and why wouldn't Skye want to fly about in a big plane like the Bus... and adds that if she's really good, Maybe Coulson wouldn't mind Andrea being aboard for 'some of the boring missions'.

Skye is nonplussed when Andrea adds that whilst she misses The Homestead and all her Aunt and Uncles agents who visit, it's always the same ones and she'd _really_ like to spend time with Uncle Andrew, and she even points out that Skye 'spends too much time being my mom' that one day, when Andrea's all grown up, Skye wont know how to be anything else.

It's a total Heart-string pulling moment, and Skye gives up and says only if Andrew agrees.

The Bus travels to Peru, with a stop off that gets to May who watches from the cockpit as Andrew picks up Andrea, and gives Coulson a shocked look. Coulson likewise just waves back awkwardly, not realising that Skye intentionally got Andrew to pick Andrea up in person so he'd see 'his old friend' alive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> that's all I got.


	6. "You've always been capable of more than you can imagine."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I guess I like Time-travel as a setup for a redo?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning, toward the end I took an Idea I had but forgotten about when I watched season 2 the first time, and basically combined that with her fears from season 5.
> 
> and makes me wonder, in canon, where *does* Daisy sleep? In the Cage? In a room designed to contain her powers?
> 
> And... Everyone needs Therapy on that show, but I know from my dad's PTSD that during treatment, it does get worse before it gets better, and can she really afford that?

_"You've always been capable of more than you can imagine."_

_"Not without you."_

-

He was right.

Just as she was.

Under his leadership, she had taken on corrupt soldiers, businessmen, and Agents of Hydra. She had fought against superpowers, terminators and aliens from outer space.

She had recovered from fatal gunshot wounds, mind control and the loss of loved ones.

All of that, she put down to the fact that he was there for her. At least, there when she let him be. Because he wasn't always there, and when he wasn't...

She struggled to find anything about her parents, bit off more than she could chew hence fatal gunshot wounds, ended up in an alien temple that killed a close friend, and the less said about when she did meet her mother the better.

Those were just the tip of the iceberg of her issues. Issues that was always better handled with him.

She ran, once. Just once, but for a long time. She hadn't handled loosing Lincoln well, and ran before he could try to help. She ran, and almost practically killed herself fighting the watchdogs, idiots who weren't even on the level of Hydra Agents, yet they still almost killed her.

Then he caught up to her, and... helped put her back together. And then she'd taken on and defeated a _swarm_ of robots.

He could draw out the best in her. And without him, comes out the worst.

She couldn't do this... she couldn't be the best version of herself without him by her side...

But he was gone. He'd left, travelled to Tahiti, the real place, and just lived his last days in peace.

She wasn't the only one feeling the grief of loss, and their grief wasn't only over him being gone. So was Jemma, not just having lost her boss and friend, but she'd lost her husband, the man that she herself counted as a little brother. They'd lost him... Twice over.

The Fitz that spent decades in suspended animation, tried to save her and then came back in time with them from that future that now never would exist, he died in Chicago.

And the Fitz that, in this timeline, should have still been in suspended animation waiting for the future that now cannot be because they'd averted it... he was gone. killed, turned to ash.

Along with half the universe' population. Yo-Yo was among those gone.

It was Jemma's idea at that point what to do, but...

Jemma couldn't do it herself. She couldn't go through life without Fitz, and the Fitz she'd find wouldn't be her Fitz, not yet, and even then he'd have his own Jemma.

She hadn't told Daisy what she had planned to do in that regard. Hadn't told what she found out about the price, and how she was willing to pay it, not until it was too late for Daisy to stop her. With a click of the fingers, and the green glow from an infinity stone, the Zephyr One vanished from an Earth that had still been rocked by a devastation, though not one geological, with the pair aboard but... Daisy didn't know how long she'd been there, frozen. Grieving. Because now... now she really was alone, on Zephyr One. And it was the year 2004.

-

**Over time**

She'd known not to make big waves. But there were some ideas that Jemma had left behind, in a little video.

One had been to find her younger-self, who at Daisy's arrival already called herself Skye, though Skye was not a hacker extraordinaire yet.

She'd have gone to deal with mommy dearest, knowing what she did of the woman she actually wasn't all that concerned with the implications to her psyche of committing matricide. Maybe she could have told Skye that it was she who was Skye's mom... but that would have been one hell of a lie.

Clone, sounded close.

But she told Skye the truth. Not, most of it. A little. Mom was an evil person. Dad wasn't so much evil as just... too much in grief over losing Skye to be the good person he used to be. She was from a future she was there to avert. She had powers. Oh, and Skye could have them too, but Daisy was totally going to train her tonnes before giving Skye that option.

The little stuff.

What she didn't tell Skye was about Lincoln, and that losing Lincoln still hurt so much that she planned on neither of them ever meeting him again.

Living with her younger self on the Zephyr was... odd. Fantastical, really. Given that it was space-capable, with engines capable of interstellar travel. And though the plane never left earth orbit... it, well... once Daisy had gotten over the shock of her arrival in this time, she'd stolen a Quinjet from SHIELD, attached it to the Zephyr and put the Zephyr into orbit.

_Then_ she had gone to find her younger self and kind of but not technically adopted her, like Jemma's suggestion.

Getting to live on a space ship was... Skye was overjoyed, and in being so, reminded Daisy _way_ too much of all the trauma she'd been through that had dulled her own personality, even though the team... even after coming back from 2091, she'd managed to find moments here and there for humor. Because of Coulson.

She did tell Skye about Coulson, though.

Taught her about SHIELD... and HYDRA.

Taught her to fly the Space-capable Quinjet, and after a few years, Daisy had provided overwatch while Skye stole her own Quinjet from SHIELD, which then received all the modification they'd made to theirs so it could fit in the second docking port of the Zephyr, that way, they could both come and go from the Zephyr seperately.

Skye had been the one to mention the names issue. Despite the evil and not-really-but-slightly evil parents, Daisy had gone on to use her birthname in her timeline. She would be noticed, and so would Skye, if either of them used the name now... and if Daisy really saw Coulson as her father, then maybe she should _own_ it. Take the name. Daisy Coulson.

And so that's what she was doing.

It was July 4th, 2009. Tony Stark had been back from his captivity in Afghanistan for just over a month, but had yet to build the Mark II Iron Man suit.

And she was using the Independance Day Celebrations as cover to infiltrate the Triskelion.

_'Are you sure about this?'_

Daisy rolled her eyes at her 'daughter's concern. No matter how weird it was, Skye had also been the one to give the idea and go ahead on that detail.

"Yes, It'll be fine, Skye."

She wore a business suit, just like the few in the lobby. Just like the ones she passed in the hallways on her way to Administration.

Oddly enough, while she was able to _hack_ her way in to placing some of the files, the best way to make it look legit? Get SHIELD to give her the hardcopy ID themselves.

She knocked on the door to the admin block, and hoped that Agent May wasn't on duty.

Her... hopes were sort of dashed, sort of fulfilled. She wasn't sure how to feel when the face that greeted her was indeed Agent Melinda May.

"Yes?"

"Here to pick up a fresh copy of my ID, Agent..."

"May." She answered shortly, with a frown.

Daisy shrugged. "Been undercover for a while, had to ditch the old cards a while back." She just gave a little tug on her smiles, like telling May it was, 'stupid mission fuckup'. Daisy looked around, though not at the office with her eyes, but her other senses.

It did not go amiss, nor her nervousness. That had been why she'd added the undercover comment, both explain why she didn't ahve cards, and the nervousness. Agents coming in from long-term undercover assignments usually were a little jittery for a day or two.

May knew this, and reacted appropriately. The minute micro-expressions that, back when she herself had been Skye, called 'non-expression', indicated she sympathised.

Daisy gave her agent ID number, and watched the minute look on May's face seeing the agent file that came up.

"Agent Coulson?" May spoke up softly, an odd look, as she handed Daisy her new SHIELD badge in a fresh wallet, the back having been imprinted with her Agent ID number.

"Hm?"

"Any relation to a, Phillip Coulson?" May asked.

She... she shut down for a moment... and then came back in control with a subtle wince. "D... why do you ask?"

She had slipped, but...

"I know an agent of that name, though he isn't old enough to have been a father."

_'Say that your dad, of that name died years ago, so can't be that agent._'

She did. She was sure her little shock and grief came across the way _Skye_ intended it to.

May raised an eyebrow at the apparent coincidence, and promptly did a little investigation, only to be startled. "Huh. He's your cousin."

She wanted to ask what Skye did when the two were writing the documents for upload.

She was _sure_ she'd left 'family' blank except for each other.

She numbly received the other documents from the Agent as they were printed, including a fresh ID card, so she didn't have to use the visitors badge on her neck to get around.

"Undercover? How long?"

Daisy blinked, and remembered the story barely, "Uh.. I... Was in Six years, but had to spend the last five dark."

May gave another sympathetic look to her, and spoke softly, "I guess you're looking forward to seeing your Daughter, huh?"

She tried to smile, and gave a shaky shrug. "Th-that's why I was dark." She took a deep breath at Skye's further insistance. Skye had... gotten used to her occasional 'OOC' behavior due the trauma. Skye had been adament that Daisy get Therapy, but she'd refused, on account of all the stuff she'd have to talk about.

Maybe not getting _some sort_ of therapy had been a bad idea?

"She... I... there... Danger..." And now hyperventilating.

Moments later, she realised that Agent May had, all while outwardly behaving as her robotic post-bahrain/pre-bus self, gotten her over to a desk and head between her knees.

"Spent too long trying to keep her protected?"

"...Secret." Was her answer. The only answer she had, really. Because yes, just as originally, all records of one 'Mary Sue Poots' had been erased. Even the SHIELD ones that Daisy-when-she-was-Skye couldn't access the first time around.

And really, it kind of explained this little panic attack.

"Safe with me." May whispered, and then went back to work, like she hadn't just done a bit of psychological trauma management for a clearly-PTSD-suffering Agent. "Well, I hope your vacation helps you Relax, Agent Coulson... and at the end of it... maybe call your cousin?"

She twitched as she left.

She really needed to look at what Skye had added to her file.

And maybe call him, screw the timeline she wanted her d- her mentor back. even though he was now only nine years older than herself, she realised.

-

She stared at the file.

When she had agreed to create her new ID as a SHIELD agent, and the reason no one knew as having being undercover and then dark for so long her records had mostly been lost and her 'handlers' were people who died, Skye had added details behind her back.

She knew that her 'reasoned' date of birth was July 6th, 1973. They had reasoned that out from that she was 31 when she jumped back in time to 2004. It would be odd to have the same 'date of birth' as Skye, and wanted Skye to celebrate hers first, so shifted it four days. (For Skye, she agreed to July 4th instead of 2nd as a subtle layer of protection from 'Evil BioMom'). Except, when they came up with that, it was actually only a handful of weeks before the first time that month came about for the pair after moving in to living together on the Zephyr. That was a detail she had then used for a reasoned out her fake SHIELD career.

The Five Years Dark, referred to that it had been five years since her last trip through time. Six undercover to that had been how long she'd been with Coulson - first on the Bus, then in the Playground and then the Lighthouse. In a way, she had been. She had started out as a Rising Tide Hacker that was actually going 'undercover' into SHIELD, even though it had turned from infiltration to genuine recruitment before she'd gotten her badge. It was just a twist of the facts so she could say she had been undercover for six years. Between the Rising Tide thing, then the whole, 'hiding from the world because they think we're terrorists' so they were. Then there was the ATCU they were using as a cover for their own SHIELD operations to Talbot's consternation. Then the whole, 'running around, getting the name Quake and fighting terrorists while being believed to be one'...

She had agreed to taking the name Coulson in his honor.

Skye however, had taken it several steps beyond. For in her 'parents' file, it listed a "Phillip Steve Coulson" as her father, born in 1934. Another file, listed Phillip Steve Coulson as having a brother, Robert Coulson, born in 1936, who had a son, born in 1964 who became an Agent, with a notation in her own file about the relation, but not in Coulsons. The real Phil Coulson's.

Phil had been recruited in the mid-80s out of college.

Her own file, listed that she was recruited at 18 years of age in 1991, but hadn't attended any Academy. Allegedly, already having the training. All agents referenced from that point as having interactions (not much, given that they were doing the whole 'SHIELD lost _most_ of the records at some point' thing) were all deceased, particularly her 'handler' for the undercover mission, which they intentionally didn't create a file for. The idea being that Daisy would 'eventually figure out' the reason SHIELD didn't try to find her or anything, was that the mission were also lost.

It would be suspicious if those where the only things that SHIELD lost, so Skye had taken great pleasure in cherry picking files to delete (after backing them up though), and corrupting other files, and leaving traces suggesting a virus had eaten the files before security systems got rid of it. Part of that corruption, the harder she looked, was even on Phil's file, so the reason why his wouldn't list a relation if someone looked now...

Skye then showed her what they were eventually going to play as being Phil's 'Original' file, basically a version of it from 1996, when they were intending this fictional virus to have been placed, would have the notation of a cousin of his being recruited, but that as far as shield were aware, he didn't even know he had an uncle, aunt or cousin.

And that the virus was planted by someone with a grudge against Phil, but said someone had died during the time that Daisy was alleged to be undercover. Specifically, someone who died not long before Daisy's actual arrival, and Daisy hoped to play off as the guy who 'found Skye', whom was now listed in her file as her daughter.

Though, the fact that Skye used a slightly altered photograph of Phil and Daisy sat in Lola and dated to be in '1991' that she had printed, then scanned the print-out of to use as the only recoverable corrupted image in Daisy's shield file...

"Was this really necessary?"

Skye shrugged. "Gives you a reason to call him now, doesn't it?"

She glared.

"And me. Don't forget your file now lists me as your Daughter, and I'd like to get to meet my extended Family!" Skye playfully protested.

"I _Thought_ you were going to do what I did?"

"We never actually _agreed_ on that." Skye pointed out. "Besides, what's the point of doing the same things when we're supposed to be _changing_ things, to stop that bad future?"

She sighed.

"And aren't you going to try to be, what was it you called them? An Avenger?"

Daisy blinked.

"I mean, you said they had powers, and one was an alien, right? and since you left no details about your _mom_, which I didn't touch, you could even eventually say that you found out you were part alien, hence the powers! And you left the detail about my _dad_ blank too... so I could say I'm like... half-alien! And analysis of our DNA would even _agree_ with it, due all that Kree stuff you told me about."

Daisy knew that her DNA, pre-GH325, and post-GH325 had been different. how different, she didn't know. And Terrigenesis had _massively_ altered her genetics even more.

So she had done a comparison of her and Skye's blood. They only actually shared about half of their genetics, at this point. Who knows if Skye's would shift the same way if she had... no. She wasn't going to.

"Skye."

"-And I think it would be awesome meeting Thor-"

"Skye."

"wonder what-"

"SKYE!"

"What?"

"... I'm not joining the Avengers."

"But you _are_ going to meet Thor... right?"

Daisy rolled her eyes but nodded.

"... Can I meet him too?"

She rolled her eyes again, but asked, "Hows your thesis coming along?"

Skye grumbled. "Ugh. Astrophysics makes my brain melt." Daisy just smiled at that one. Traversing the galaxy kind of gave her a leg up on that, but- "Speaking of astro... what other planets have you been to?"

Phew, dodged a bullet th-

"And can I meet him too?"

-

Daisy looked at the agent cross-legged on the ground, then back up at Skye, who looked sheepish.

In the background, other Agents were looking between the Agent Coulsons, Skye, and the agent on the ground.

"Skye." She spoke softly.

"Heh... Reflex?"

Coulson - Phil, that is, just chuckled as he turned away and waved them both into the makeshift command centre setup near the Mjolnir crash site. Skye's presence had _not_ been Daisy's idea, but since when did Skye actually do all of what she said? Never, that's when.

Though, Skye's presence she actually blamed on Phil, in regards to her being _inside_ the SHIELD base. Daisy had said yes to Skye meeting _thor_... not to exposing herself to all the SHIELD idiots, like Sitwell on the floor.

Daisy wanted to keep Skye well away from Hydra agents.

Skye ignored the fact that no one was supposed to know about Hydra in the first place, and just set herself up for the meeting to result in a knee to the groin for Sitwell. Her training had been going well.

Too well.

"Ever thought about joining SHIELD?" Phil asked... and while Daisy scowled, Skye just grinned with a shrug and gave a little hand motion to mean 'sort of a little but not really'.

"Dont give her any ideas, cousin." She spoke low. Skye had succeeded in what Daisy had struggled to do, got the 'Coulsons' talking to each other after all.

"How's your courses in Astrophysics going? I presume that was why you were here with Doctor Foster?"

Phil's tone was light, but Daisy knew it too good and saw the trap.

"_Big_ headache, I mean, I get with..." Skye looked out of a window in the direction of the actual crater, though it wasn't visible at all, "That SHIELD kind needs people who know their stuff, but," she scratched her head. "High School drop out, here. I don't exactly have the full foundation to find it _easy._"

Phil blinked.

Daisy reminded him, "I found out where the foster system had been hiding her because another asshole that hates SHIELD decided to go after her. You know educational stability is bad for foster kids." She turned to Skye, though spoke to both, "No matter that she's got the intelligence for it."

Just then, there was a commotion, and Skye looked excited that _something_ was happening.

"Skye. Stay here." Daisy commanded with the one tone that Skye had long known to be the one Daisy used when she absolutely _had to_.

She moved out, heading for the hammer.

She found Thor... bulldozing his way through SHIELD Mooks. Agents. Not Mooks. Agents.

And then he met her, and... she barely managed to keep up. Only because she was _so much more durable_ with the centipede serum, and can match his level of force by tiny uses of her powers.

Thor recognised her, because Skye and Daisy _had _been with Jane Foster when Phil turned up, and while Daisy had stuck around long enough to end up meeting Thor with Jane, Skye had wandered off against her orders to talk with her "favourite uncle", as she had begun calling Phil, so oddly enough, despite the reason being here for Skye to meet Thor, Skye hadn't yet.

Thor knew something was up, though Daisy had not mentioned her 'job'. (She was always scarce when it came to getting an assignment, so technically she hadn't been on a SHIELD mission since the time travel).

Then he heard a gasp, as did she, and Daisy saw her dau-her younger self at the other end of the corridor. "Skye-"

"_Woah... You're... AWESOME!_" Skye interrupted, looking at her with awe.

In the back of her mind, Daisy realised that Skye had never actually seen her _fight_. Only the sparring, when she tried to teach Skye how to defend herself (and, like she had been on the Bus with Ward, Skye hadn't treated it all that seriously). The difference in speed was like night and day.

"Indeed you are a skilled opponent." Thor spoke, but as he turned back to continue fighting, dismissing Skye as a non-threat... Teh sudden attack got through her guard... and the cry of anger from the hallway distracted her enough to miss the next strike... but saw that Skye used what she _had_ paid attention to, and Thor almost went down to the shot in the back. "You DARE-"

"YOU HURT MY MOM!" Skye Shouted, and Daisy took the opening to regroup, taking a ready stance and fully willing to let loose her full breadth of skill against the enraged asgardian, who had glared at Skye.

Thor made a move. It wasn't the one either of the women expected. He burst through the thin tissue wall of the corridor into the open air, and made a more direct route to Mjolnir.

-

Fury looked between Skye, who looked sheepish, and Daisy, who just looked at him like she wasn't impressed.

"So let me get this straight. First, your daughter here put one of my best agents in the infirmary." Daisy didn't flinch, or even twitch, she knew Sitwell was Hydra and had no sympathy, but even without that, he'd actually done something to get that response anyway. If Fury expected her to be unhappy, tough.

"Then, despite being told to stay put, she found you fighting someone who turned out to be the _Norse God of Thunder_, and the way the surveillance shows, actually winning, when she interrupts the fight, and then shoots said _god_ in the back?!"

Daisy twitched.

"And despite what we know of their code of honor, that somehow it _impressed_ him, and actually _apologized_ for hurting you, during your fight against what he called a Sentinel." Daisy twitched, though this time trying to keep in a smile. Fury was too observant to miss it though. "And to top it all off... it was _Skye_ who brought him his hammer, when no one else was able to pick it up?!"

Skye looked down at her feet, and was suddenly acting like a five year old either caught with her hand in the cookie jar, or said five year old embarrassed at being caught doing degree-level mathematics.

Daisy just raised an eyebrow, asking what his point was.

Fury sighed, muttering, "And I thought _One_ Coulson was bad. Turns out there's _three of em_."

-

**2012**

Daisy had in fact gotten into several SHIELD missions since Puente Antiguo. It would have gotten noticed by more than just _Phil and Nick Fury_ if her only involvement had been that one time, 'by accident'. As it was, Daisy had the perfect set up to explain her lack of Agently activity, but Fury had different ideas, and so off she was, back to being an Agent, only without Coulson around.

No undercover work, thankfully. Skye threatened to bean Fury with Mjolnir if he sent her mom undercover, and made the ominously serious sounding threat that she wouldn't even need the rainbow bridge to go get it. Daisy knew she had skirted _way too close_ to the truth about how they had the Zephyr, no matter how vague it had been.

Mom.

That still got to her, that Skye had gotten used to the idea, even as a lie, to the point that a few times, Skye had, when they were in the privacy of the Zephyr, called her _mom_. The first time she called her that with that sincerity, Skye had hid herself away scared that Daisy would be mad.

The second time was less than a week later, and Daisy had just smiled at it but otherwise said nothing on its use.

Now, Daisy really had thought of herself as Skye's Mom.

She'd made sure the holes in Skye's education had been filled, and that Skye even had her college-level academics done. She'd worried over all the time Skye spent in Culver, interacting with people Daisy had probably never met. She'd even done the shovel speech a few times to prospective boyfriends, thought she was sure a few of those times didn't work, with said boyfriends probably thinking about-... no that was...

She knew that people found it weird how so alike they looked, but, well... she _was_ old enough to pass off as Skye's mom anyway. Her SHIELD file basically said that Daisy was a teenager when Skye was born. Just because it said nothing about biological or adoptive links, it still implied certain things, and she was fine with it. If people fully believed that Daisy had given birth to Skye... less chance of _them_ finding Skye.

If she were honest, she loved it. Be she wasn't.

There were a lot of... missteps, miscommunications. Skye was still kind of scared at how Daisy would react, just because of how different they were. Skye, the civilian, Daisy, the highly-trained Agent. Never stopped Skye from doing or saying things, or not for long anyway, but both of them knew that as, good, as things were between them, it was still kind of bad.

And Skye knew that Daisy _missed the hell out Coulson_.

Skye knew, because every time Daisy finally got the courage to tell a story, it _always_ involved Coulson in some way. And Daisy _always_ needed space afterwards, because Skye knew that Daisy still struggled emotionally.

And then it came.

The Battle of New York, and Skye wondered why her Mom was in such a bad mood that even her immense control over her quake powers was slipping, to the point that Daisy had said _fuck it_ and joined the fight.

Watching her mom fight _giant space whales_ had her in awe... and in the aftermath, seeing Daisy just... _break down_... had her scared.

No. Terrified.

It terrified her so bad that took her Quinjet, and went to get Fury.

"Skye?"

"... Where's Uncle Phil?!" Skye asked, ignoring the presence of who she knew to be the Avengers. "Mom's... Mom's just... Shut down and locked herself in her bunk on the Zephyr, and I can't get her to speak to me..."

"... S-..." Fury hesitated... and Skye's learned skill of reading the emotionally-controlled Daisy paid off. Skye wished it didn't.

"What... What happened to him... Is..." Fury looked up, clearly asking for help... and a face she'd seen in SHIELD files came into view. "Where's uncle Phil? Is he ok?"

The woman before her gulped, and asked, "Phil Coulson?" Skye nodded... "... you must be Skye, then... I'm... I'm sorry but..."

She didn't hear a word over the next two, five, ten minutes. She _knew_ she was being told what happened. She parsed it. Understood it. But she didn't consciously hear anything.

She just stared at nothing.

And when she came too, she didn't care that the avengers were all here. She just looked at Fury and whispered, begged, "You... you're gonna bring him back, right?"

-

_"You've always been capable of more than you can imagine."_

-

Skye knew those words.

Daisy had told her them several times, whenever she doubted herself.

Every time, skye replied, _"Not without you."_ Daisy always got choked up at that. Now she knew why.

After giving SHIELD the slip and taking the Quinjet back to the Zephyr (and by route of habit she'd found and removed several tracking devices without consciously registering it as she did so), she'd found her Mom in the command deck of the spacecraft, playing a recording from Phil. Phil in the future, to her mom, with several of her former colleagues in shot.

It didn't take long to realise just what the recording was. It was that timelines' Phil Coulson saying goodbye to Daisy.

She heard the reply, both in the recording from her mom in the video, and in person, from her mom watching the recording. _"Not without you."_

It scared her, the way her mom was. She knew Daisy wasn't... the best, mentally.

She'd long known her mom had deep, untreated PTSD. She'd seen for herself, that she seemed better once Skye had gotten her to call this timelines' Phil, whom had never been her mentor, nor her, father figure. Not actually better, just... more able to cope.

The idea of loosing Uncle Phil a second time...

She didn't understand what it was like for her mom, who had already lost him twice, and nearly so who knows how many times. She hoped that she never would know what that felt like.

At least she had the hope that he'd 'get better soon'. She knew this death happened the first time, but hadn't really... _known_.

She now knew why her mom had been so upset _before_ the event.

And why she looked guilty. She could have stopped it.

And she could have prevented the Avengers from having something to Avenge.

She gulped as she realised why her mom had been dead set against somehow ending up on that team, because accepting that as a possibility, meant accepting that actually, they _would_ have something to avenge, and there was only one candidate for most of them.

She didn't say a word, she just calmly walked up to her mom, and cuddled up to her. Her mom didn't startle. Didn't flinch. Just accepted the hug, and the pair that could pass for twins watched the recording, as it began to play from the start.

-

**September, 2013**

Skye looked up as the hood was removed, and saw the face of some typical SHIELD douchebag agent, the one who had black-bagged her, and... Coulson. Who looked at her without any sign of recognition. And only that did she realise that he had been the other agent present when she was taken from her little van.

She paled, and looked down, trying to hide the look of pain.

"Sorry for the lack of finesse. Agent Ward here has had a little history with your group." Coulson spoke.

She gulped, and nodded. "S... Sorry."

"You know they almost got me killed?" Agent Ward asked.

She glanced up at him, "I didn't shave it that close did i?" He glared in realisation. "S-Sorry... I... uh... I only posted it when I saw the mission complete notice."

Coulson sounded like he was amused, though she didn't look at him. Couldn't. The lack of recognition hurt. "What's your name?"

... _Ouch_.

".. Skye."

"Your _Real_ name." Ward asked.

Skye just reached in for her wallet and ID that they hadn't removed - _rookie mistake_ since that also meant that during the trip to wherever they were, she'd had access to her little 'tools'. She did _not_ want to end up breaking her thumbs to get out of the cuffs. As she passed the wallet to Coulson, without looking at him, she already knew he had an impressed look on his face given that, though her right hand with the wallet was above the table, her left hand was still in her lap, well, as Ward gasped, she shakily put the unlocked cuffs on the table.

Then Coulson made a gasp-like noise. "Says your name is Skye Coulson."

She looked up.

He blinked.

"Of... Of course it does."

"... Skye?" He blinked... frowned, looked at her almost smiling, frowned... "I..." Clutch of the head, "Ow..."

"Sir?"

"Are, are you okay?" She asked hesitantly, and when her uncle just grabbed his head again, paid no attention to the confused and worried young agent, just shot around the table and pulled him into sitting in the seat across from the one she'd been in. "Uncle Phil, talk to me..."

"... Skye? I... I didn't... remember.. but... oh my head..."

She had to play it like she knew what the problem was. Except, she did, but not that one, the fake one.

"Don't... Don't push it. Probably after effects from that alien weapon you were skewered on, right?"

He blinked and slowly nodded.

"why... Rising tide?" He managed to get out.

She looked down. "I..." She gulped, then looked up. "I was... angry..."

"At SHIELD?"

She shrugged. That was as much the truth as many other answers were.

"Your mom?"

She twitched her lips, upset at how true her next words were. "Took your death worse than I did. _Way worse._"

"Where it she?"

She looked up, exageratedly, then back.

"Flying planes?"

She shook her head. "Eight months ago, she just... took the Zephyr away."

They had never told anyone what the Zephyr was, through context, Phil knew it was a plane of some sort.

"You said..."

She pointed up. Decided ti didn't matter now. "not in the air. Space." She gulped.

"... the Zephyr is a spaceship?" he asked, half-joking, half... something else. She nodded, and glanced at ward who was incredulous. "She said that she took you to live on the Zephyr in 2004, because you were in danger... and its..."

She nodded. "Yeah. She said earth was too... dangerous... for me for a while, that they couldn't get us in orbit... But.. Its not just that type. She could be anywhere in the galaxy now." At his look, she added, "why do you think SHIELD still has no record of her 6-year undercover assignment?, nor her presence in that time anywhere on earth?"

... "In space?"

She smiled a little, though it was sad. "She said, in space, no one can hear you crying." She held him tight for a moment. "I tried to tell her that's not the line."

They both chuckled.

"Sir...?"

She sighed. "I'm... Skye Coulson. Really. He's me... Uncle. well. Cousin really, but I prefer calling him my Uncle."

Ward looked between them. "Rising Tide?"

... Sheepish, she shrugged. "You... didn't get hurt, did you? when I... leaked shield missions?"

"Mostly only my pride."

"Mostly?"

He blushed. "Once got caught by... uhm anyway."

Phil laughed. "I read that report." He looked at Skye. "You have a tendency of hurting my agents in that place."

She blushed. "hey, the others it was reflex and self defence training." She looked at ward. "dont blame me for Ward."

"Okay... we have to get to business." Coulson spoke, and waved her into the seat. "I know you're too good that have... huh."

"Sir?"

"... You knew I was coming, that _I_ was the agent who'd be sent?"

"... yeah."

He lost his smile. "What's wrong?"

"... you guys haven't heard of something called, centipede, have you?"

-

Daisy watched the video feed from the Bus.

She'd only returned that week. She wanted to make sure...

Seeing Ward had actually brought back _way too many_ bad memories. Also, she didn't recall ever telling Skye about Ward being Hydra... though she was sure it must have come up somehow. She knew she told Skye at the very least that one of the original Team Bus team members was... even though that conversation she didn't recall.

The 'interrogation' in the Cage was _way different_ than what she remembered. And she found it curious (and painful) that Coulson had obviously forgotten them, but immediately remembered, though...

That was worrying.

She hoped to high heaven that him being away from most people who knew him before (Excepting May, of course), had merely been about the secret, and not about not breaking the memory alterations too early.

She watched, and watched.

Aside from _conversations_, the events themselves... matched pretty well what she remembered.

Not entirely. Mike didn't almost end up going nuclear in the factory where he used to work.

The circumstances around the train showdown didn't involve kidnapping Skye and taking the van with a knocked-out May left behind, instead it was just facial recognition finding him there, though Skye did, in the aftermath erase his records rather than before the train station showdown.

Peru happened.

The fight in the air on the way back from Peru... that was were she stepped in.

She'd docked her Quinjet to the top of the Bus, and descended into chaos, having timed it well. Team Bus were just waking up in the cargo hold when she took out the soldiers with her powers, and ignored Coulson's incredulous looks. She had already knocked out the surveillance feeds to SHIELD, her presence wouldn't be recorded.

The team had been surprised by her presence, and the looks from the science twins... she barely held it together as Skye hugged the life out of her and Phil gave a sidehug awkwardly for a moment, before she just pulled him in... and then pulled him and Skye up to her Quinjet and let her emotions free, sobbing and apologizing for leaving Skye and...

-

She watched the team, as they watched the rocket launch. Skye sat with the science twins, actually talking science, surprising the two with admitting to her academics in astrophysics, and trying to say that that made her an actual rocket scientist.

Ward was stood back from the trio, but still near them, stood on the partially-lowered ramp the trio were all sat on the lip of.

She felt Phil approach from the side.

"How are you doing?"

She sighed. "... taking it day by day."

"Skye's worried about you."

She nodded. "I know. She's smart girl."

"I get the impression she doesn't think much of her intelligence."

She heard the unspoken question. "Foster homes, Phil."

"Right. I guess someone needs to tell her she's capable of more than she thinks."

_'You've always been capable of more than you can imagine.'_

_'Not without you.'_

"You'll need to keep reminding her."

"... You're not staying?"

Daisy looked at him finally. "And what, have all her contributions she could make be overshadowed by me? She thinks she can _never_ be as strong as me, Phil. But she is. She doesn't have my demons. And I dont want her to."

"Where will you go, then?"

Daisy smiled softly as Skye turned to her, mouthed 'I love you', and turned back to her new friends.

"Not far." She looked at Phil this time with a grin, "I'll be watching, so don't let her get into too much trouble."

"Right. Earth orbit. So. Spaceship, huh?"

A sigh. "She told you that, huh?" He hmmed in reply.

The silence that settled between them ended after the rocket launch, though before the younger Team Bus members moved from the ramp.

"How did you get it?"

Daisy looked at him for a moment, amused, then just asked, "Want your own, huh?"

"Seriously, please? I know its not something SHIELD had when you left Earth on that 'undercover mission'."

"I was part of the team that built it, Phil." She looked away. "Amazing the things you can do when you have super powers."

She caught his look. "Yes, I've had them for a long time. Didn't when Skye was born, in case your wondering on that regard."... Daisy was amused again, at the use of that half-truth.

"Spaceship and super powers." Coulson playfully half-complained. "And what do I get?"

"A second chance at life." She spoke, trying to go for amused but, just hitting...

"Skye... would..."

"The potential is hereditary, so... maybe. But it's a process that has to be triggered, not something that just happens like puberty. I don't know what scares me more, that Skye never develops powers... that she does but, _completely_ different from mine... or she gets what I have, and what that _means_ for her."

"Why would that scare you?"

"I didn't sleep on a spaceship in earth orbit just for shits and giggles. I didn't sleep on a spaceship in earth orbit that was made out of _vibranium alloys_ to show off. I sleep on the zephyr because its the only safe place that I _can_ sleep. _My power is the power of vibration manipulation_, Phil. I dont just make... a gun shake apart. I can affect _tectonic plates_."

His eyes widened.

"If I sleep on earth, and have just _one_ bad nightmare? Imagine the absolute devastation I could cause, Phil. I'm one bad night away from doing more damage to Earth than the Chitauri could ever hope to approach. I was part of the team that built it not because I just wanted to build a spaceship. I was because I needed to _make my own bed that I COULD lie in_. So that if it was ever broken and I was alone, I knew how to fix it. I have seen how bad people sleep when they try to face their demons. I know I have PTSD, and I know that if I _tried_ to get therapy, that was actually going to work? It would never reach the point of me getting better, because part of that therapy? People get worse, before they get better. _I can't afford to get worse than I already am_. That's why I sleep on a spaceship made of vibranium alloys in earth orbit. That's why I spend as little time as I can down here, on the ground. That's why I was _dark_ for so long. And Skye? If she had been in a good home... I never would have taken her with me."

She looked at Skye then, as the younger girl went passed and tried to play off like she and the science twins hadn't just _heard every word she'd said_.

She knew they would. Ward, Fitz and Simmons. She needed to _make a point_.

Daisy finished with, "That's how dangerous Earth was for _Skye_. She was safer with someone who has night terrors that would freeze your soul. Safer to be with someone that, If I had lost control for just one second, could have rendered every _bone and organ in her body to pieces no larger than tiny fine sand grains_. Every second she's with me, she's in danger. But being here on earth was always more dangerous. Until now."

She looked away and left Phil gobsmacked at the base of the spiral stairs, ascending and passing Melinda who had been rooted still, having also heard it all.

As she did, she just softly asked, "Keep an eye on them both for me, K?"

-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~HOYL SHIT FJFJFJF!
> 
> That got DARK!
> 
> okay, Calmer now.
> 
> ...  
Nope. Still crying.


	7. Trauma List

**"Just What is your Trauma!?"**

Well... where to begin.

Foster homes.

The Orphanage.

Foster Homes...

Nuns at the Orphanage.

More Foster Homes.

Always worried someone would try to jack her van while she was sleeping, and/or take advantage of her.

And that was before SHIELD.

There was the kidnapping by Mike, while he was emotionally unstable.

There was the whole 0-8-4 business with the Peruvians, whose actions only reinforced her own opinions against them.

The worry that Quinn would hold a grudge of what she had done. (... turns out, he had.)

The whole, ick factor realising that a SHIELD agent, and probably not the only missing one, had been experimented on and implanted with a fake eye that had a kill switch. Really not selling her on being an Agent.

That whole thing in Hong Kong and only just saving her team at the last second.

Almost losing Simmons to an alien non-biological virus.

Almost losing Fitz because a Level 8 Bitch hadn't put in an extraction plan.

That whole, almost beat-down by people enhanced by an Asgardian Relic.

That whole thing with Tobias 'I'm a ghost' Ford, that was just super creepy.

Oh, and Coulson's Kidnapping.

Followed by, yikes, how he was when she found him.

That freaky weather and ice-machine at SHIELD Hogwarts.

Oh. Can't forget getting two to the stomach and almost dying.

And being saved by a drug derived from an alien's bodily fluids. Yuck.

How about an Asgardian with magic that could have killed her while she was still bed-ridden?

Finding out about Hydra.

Finding Eric dead, killed by Ward, and yeah, Ward being Hydra.

What Ward did to Fitz.

That was just her first year with SHIELD.

Little by Little by a bigger bit of little by little by little...

So. What was her trauma?

"You want a List?" She told the random annoyed valley girl who hadn't been looking where they were walking and had, infact, been the one to barge into herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's not a Whedon Show if the Main Ccharacter doesn't need therapy by the end of the first year, never mind end of the show's run.


	8. SuperQuake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Crossing over into DC...

**SuperQuake**

Of all the things that could have happened to her... after all the things that _had_ happened to her, she'd built up a list of things she actually did expect to happen at the very least around her. This didn't make that list.

Oddly enough, though, it had made Jemma's list.

"Seriously? You thought that at some point you'd end up in another universe, one _we_ consider fictional?"

Jemma just smiled as she sipped her nice cup of Tea and observed the various reactions of the JL members gathered around.

Daisy just sighed at her non-response, and looked at the people who weren't too pleased at how the two dimensionally-displaced had ignored their questions... then back at Jemma. "I'd have thought you would have put Doctor Who on that list."

"Oh it was." Was Jemma's simple answer, slight giggle and then resumed sipping the cup of tea.

"Above or below?- Right, Above this one."

Daisy looked around again, putting names she knew to costumes. She noticed that the Green Arrow looked like Stephen Amell, the Oliver actor from 'Arrow', yet Superman over in the corner looked like Tom Welling, the Clark actor from Smallville.

It was odd seeing him in the familiar uniform, when he hadn't worn it in the show until the end (and it was cut-to-black as he took of the office suit to reveal the familiar shield on his chest).

She spotted Arsenal played by mister former abercrombie model, so she guessed that this variant of the DC heroes were the 'Arrowverse' with exceptions for smallville.

Something told her Chloe didn't exist in this universe either, though that same instinct made her think that maybe it had to do with the issues the actress had in their home universe.

Obviously, though, couldn't be the smallville timeline anyway because both Lionel and Lex Luthor was here, being _friendly_ with the JL members, so probably a timeline were they were at least redeemed from being, or even never had been villains.

She'll settle for the former, she decided, as she caught a _few_ cautious looks at the two businessmen from the Arrow-verse versions of various heroes.

She looked at Arsenal again. "Yo Abercrombie!"

The groan from him told her all she needed to know.

"So. You're Daisy Johnson." Spoke one of the JL members. Looked like the Aquaman from the Smallville show, actually.

She blinked. Neither of them had given names... and there was no sign of a J'onn in the crowd. "... Yes?"

"Quake." "Oh my god." "Skye!" "Is that..." "Did he say Daisy Johnson?"

She blinked at the furore that question and her answer had gotten, before Tom Well-- Clark Kent aka Superman stepped up. or, flew up, and whistled. Not Super-Whistled, just Whistled.

"Daisy Johnson, Nickname of Skye, Codenamed Quake? Fought Hydra, rogue Inhumans, Hive, Aida, the framework, and so on?" Clark/Superman asked.

She nodded. "... what form of fiction here?" was her simplest ask.

"TV Show." Oliver/Green Arrow spoke up, even as he pulled back his sister from running up to them.

"You too." She spoke, pointing at Oliver and Barry. "Different show for you though. Theirs didn't have you appear, even with a different Actor, Not a 'shared universe' depiction, unlike 'The Hood' and I don't remember your initial codename, but You're the Flash, and had your own show with timetravel hijinks."

"... Huh."

Jemma blurted out. "HAve you really altered the timeline like in the show?"

Barry looked sheepish. "Yeah. I remember variations were Superman _didn't_ exist, or at least didn't make himself known."

Daisy just chuckled. "What's the story with Lex? The show version for Smallville here had them friends at first, but turned into enemies... I'm guessing this lex knows your 'Secret identity'?"

Lex nodded. "everyone here knows about Clark, but basically sounds the same." He rolled his eyes, "though when he saved me from myself with some Kryptonite experiment that turned me into my light and dark selves, the idea of my dark side having taken control... scares me."

Daisy blinked. "That's what happened in the TV show I think. Lab 33.1?"

Lex frowned. "I had a project investigating the effects of various Kryptonite forms on people, and how to cure the more dangerous or fatal infections, called Project 33.1, but no 'lab' as such."

"Ah. I dont recall much, so might be getting details of the show wrong, but..." Daisy sighed as she thought it over, "It was a lab were you experimented on people that had been affected by the kryptonite. Immoral experiments. Evil ones. You weren't interested in curing, but creating. Was there something with, uh... Brainiac? Zod?"

Clark winced. "Damn near lost Lex to that possession... And the affects of a human with Kryptonian powers."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> that's all I got for you, sorry.


	9. Sick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skye wasn't looking for her biological parents just to know who they were...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is rather a Fanfic, of a Fanfic. Specifically, of How to Save A Life by Daria24. Minus the 'soulmates' part because while I will read a story with it, thats not what I'm reading it for. (well, for the pairing)

She hated needles, but she hated getting sick even more, so had put up with Jemma giving her a round of innoculations during the flight to Peru. She was glad that Jemma didn't ask about the groups of needle marks on her arms, letting her subdued comment of 'hospital visits' explain them.

Jemma _did_ ask if she could take a blood sample, and her answer had been 'for you, yes... for shield, no.', and Jemma just nodded, and didn't take a sample until Coulson had come down and affirmed that he was giving the go ahead to keep any test results off of the database.

During the stay at the SHIELD facility where they sent the 0-8-4 into space, she had overheard Jemma giving a basic rundown on those tests. Blood type, in the event they have to give her a transfusion, and genetic coding recorded on an off-network computer if they ever need to, but other than that, basic checks for viruses came back clear.

She didn't know whether to be glad or not that Simmons hadn't taken enough blood for a _complete_ round of tests.

After her little visit to Malta, she'd gotten a small, _very mild_ case of hypothermia from her little dip in the pool. Jemma was _not_ pleased with that, since Skye made for a rebellious patient. Skye had thought she'd seen a few glances of concern that was not from her being sick, but from the ease with which she got sick. That, and her protests over needles with drugs that Jemma insisted she take...

During the chase of Coulson's former protege, she got banged up worse than either of the science!Twins, which only made Jemma even more concerned from the sheer level of bruising she had.

What brought it all into an almost crystal clarity for everyone - though _none of them_ said a word - was Miles' frowning at her when he saw those bruises - Skye still recovering from that crash - and asking her if she had quit taking her meds, and the half-argument the pair got into about meds that 'may' help her not get hurt so easily, but made her sick all the time.

It was clear to the team that, even though he was a sell-out, he _did_ care for Skye. And he knew what they didn't.

What Jemma was coming to understand.

Because Skye _was_ sick. Not the instantly obvious kind of sick, like a cold or flu. But a long-term sickness. One whose treatments were perhaps just as bad for the body as the sickness itself.

That was when Coulson, after being told about her search for her parents and handed a storage card with most of her gathered evidence on herself, made part of the agreement of Skye getting to stay on the Bus, along with the bracelet, her telling him _what was wrong_. She weedled him down to just telling Jemma, and that it was _Jemma's_ choice on informing him if, or when, it was necessary. And that the call on if it was necessary, was on Jemma. Coulson understood what _that_ meant, and cleared it on the proviso that Jemma agreed to that before anything else got said.

Jemma didn't tell. She was pissed at Skye for it, but still. But she was also concerned.

After that, when Skye wasn't training with Agent May (after a few too many bruises from Ward, who quickly realised that he _didn't_ know how to train someone with Skye's body type and May stepped up) or performing authorised hacks on behalf of SHIELD and the Team BUS missions, she was spending a lot of time in the lab, and Fitz being kicked out for privacy.

The whole team knew, at that point, that something was wrong with Skye. They knew that her semi-regular innoculations against local bugs of wherever they were going was actually the hacker's idea on the basis that before the Bus, she'd never been beyond the US Border, and spent _most_ of her time either in California, Texas or New York State, with the odd bit of time in between travelling in her van between those places. Yet despite this, she had a really bad reaction to needles.

No. Not really bad. Horrendous.

The first time, on the way to Peru, she'd straight up asked Ward to hold her down, because she was 'a little afraid of needles' and didn't want to hurt Jemma.

She'd experienced a severe panic attack, yet in the midst of it, told Jemma to do it anyway. The team had figured Skye didn't want to get sick more than she didn't want a shot, and that maybe she'd get better in time. Ward hadn't seen the needle marks telling the story that she'd had _many_, and not that long ago.

It hadn't been more than a handful of trips later that they just straight-up strapped her down for her 'voluntarily scared out of her mind shots'. Jemma had clearly struggled with the ethics of that, with Skye pointing out that the whole thing was _her_ idea, and she wasn't actually _forced_ into those shots, she just 'doesn't want to get sick'. They hadn't questioned it after Malta.

Skye was strapped down in the lab getting a sample of blood drawn when they noticed that Jemma was sick...

Skye felt like jumping out of the plane herself, and only didn't because she and Fitz both saw that the cure the twins came up with worked.

The flu-like symptoms were much _much_ worse for Skye than they were for Jemma. Even when the biochemist assured Skye that the alien virus was gone, the static discharges were only an _after-effect_... there was still concern for the Hacker, because unlike Skye, Jemma had no such after-effects.

Skye needed a full _week_ to recover, and at the beginning was when Jemma insisted to Skye that actually, it is necessary to tell at least Coulson.

Skye just looked very small as she had quietly responded about that the deal was telling Coulson was Jemma's call in that regard. If Jemma says it's necessary... Then it is.

Coulson spent much of that week in the lab with Skye, officially, tutoring her in SHIELD protocols and history. Unofficially, helping to distract the girl from being a menace to 'Her Warden'.

She spent most of her time at the Hub in a room of their infirmary, Coulson agreeing to her medical data being classified Level 8 with Jemma (only a level 6) having access as her team's Doctor. Despite that, she _still_ managed to hack SHIELD and the team found out about Fitz and Wards' mission not having an extraction.

Skye was glad that she'd been in that ward at the time, because at one point, Agent Victoria Hand came down to talk to her, Skye figured Coulson warned the woman that unless distracted, She was going to be a menace to the infirmary staff, and the Agent had decided to do a little spot-check on her knowledge base.

They'd actually gotten along, to Coulson's utter confusion. Skye knew why - Hand was very, by-the-book, most of the time. (No Extraction Plan aside, that was _very off-protocol_).

After the recovery in Georgia, Jemma had insisted on Skye having two more days in the Hub's infirmary, and Hand came back... and Skye confronted the woman on what she suspected. The woman _was_ very much about by-the-book, but she had wanted to test both Skye - skye realised she had a reputation in SHIELD at this point - and Coulson, because, Hand shared, that he seemed to be different from how he used to be. Because the Coulson from five years ago wouldn't have looked twice at the hacker. The extraction plan all along was for Coulson and Team Bus to go in. She knew that, plan or no plan, that would happen. She just needed to see if Skye would do what they had expected - break the rules with no regard for the team - what they hoped - break the rules _for_ the team - or do nothing in which case Hand would pretend like someone messed up in the mission brief and 'last minute' sending the Bus because 'some level 2 twit left that out of your briefing pack'.

Skye waited all of two minutes after getting back on the Bus to share those nuggets.

a few weeks later, and several other sessions with needles for different reasons later, and Team Bus ended up doing some of the clear-up after Thor's little bust up with the dark elves, minus Skye, who with Jemma's agreement, kept her distance less she be exposed to another alien virus. Why Jemma let the rest of the team, herself and fitz included, left Ward and May mistified.

But then, there was a little incident...

And Skye, who had been feeling rather weak from the regular blood donations to 'Count Simmula', ended up picking up the Berserker staff, in pieces and then in its re-fused form and whaling on the cult of idiots. Once they were all down, she had then frozen, and it took May prying the staff off of the girl for her to move.

After that, She refused to answer Wards question of how she held two, then the full staff, when he couldn't even handle one. A question that he also, in part, asked of May who had seemingly handled the Staff without being effected, yet all saw the look in _her_ eyes... and proved them wrong by telling the team to leave Skye alone when the twins and Ward tried to ask more questions of Skye, and her tone was very much _not_ the flat controlled Agent May voice they were familiar with.

Jemma was clearly frightened of getting a bad response, but got the courage to ask Skye to follow her to the lab to get her bruises checked out. To her relief, Skye followed, though May was the one who took the first step, and not long after the team realised that Skye was sticking by the older agents' side.

In her 'home space', Jemma got too comfortable, and made the mistake of saying that she just needed to draw a blood sample to check for anything measurably different since handling the berserker staff... and witnessed Skye, unlike before, point blank refuse by way of snapping the armrests of the chair she had been sat in, and retreated to a corner, yet still without a word.

Jemma saw the look in her eyes, and it chilled her to her soul.

She looked at May, and saw similar, but also that the older agent was handling it better, but she needed to know, so asked non-invasive questions about the mental effects. Jemma knew then that she wouldn't sleep well that night, given the implications of the answers for Skye's wellbeing.

She gave up on anything with needles, but insisted that she needed to do a visual check of the various injuries that Skye had picked up over time that still were slow to mend. May helped, present in case... what, scared Jemma. But what scared her more was the absolute absence of any injury. Gone. Every single one. Not even scars from the many _many_ needles Skye had been poked with in the last few years, a quarter of which were once _Jemma_ had done. 

She knew from the look on May's face, that this was _not_ going to be the case with the Older agent, nor with Ward.

But then, May only held the staff on her own for two seconds, from getting it out of Skye's grasp to placed on the floor. Skye had _wiped the floor_ with the cult of idiots using the staff. Only an Asgardian would understand what secondary effects it had, beyond strength enhancement and its mental effects.

And then Jemma told Skye point-blank that at some point, she'd need to see if the healing extended to her cancer.

... May was not happy hearing THAT.


	10. Right in the Feels

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fusion of 'Skye is sick' with 'Skye came back in time'. Side-order of Skye totally claiming Phil and Melinda are her biological parents.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning. I had this as a dream, and woke up crying. I'm a 31 year old male and this had me in tears. Why does my mind do this to me?!

**There were upsides and downsides.**

The form of travel, meant that there _wouldn't_ be two versions of her unlike when they came back from like, 2090 or so, that led to the Fitz that came with, and the younger fitz still in cryo waiting for the future.

There were both Upsides and Downsides to that. Downside, she had actually been looking forward to gaining a 'Little Sister'. Even started thinking of introducing herself as Daisy and letting the younger version stay as Skye. Downside, She'd be the one to face the Rising Tide.

Upsides though... the Alien beings agreed to her genetic alteration, with the placement of relevant "non-physical evidence" that would only 'come to light' after her arrival.

She really would become their daughter.

No.

She _Is_ their daughter.

_'I AM their Daughter'_, she thought to herself pointedly, working the details into her brain with the mentally-figurative bludgeoning hammer.

Truth of the matter, this did not propagate further into the past resulting in it being a biological fact of her being physically born to Melinda May. The agent had _never_ been pregnant, so far as she knew... prior to mentally trying to change her own thought process on that so that she would forget ever _not_ being Melinda's daughter.

This did not suddenly write into their romantic history a dialliance if one such had not happened... around the correct time for her physical age, anyway.

She knew the pair _had_ in fact gotten drunk a handful of times that they didn't recall, and _had_ worried about such things having occured in those blank spots, and _had_ been so embarrassed that neither admitted their feelings for one another long enough that Andrew had gotten into the picture before either worked the courage for such admission of feelings.

Whether anything _did_ happen those times, though, well, even on his death bed, Coulson had lamented not remembering if they had, and lamented it not happening if they hadn't.

Part of the travel would also 'reset' her body age.

It would not _remove_ her powers, which she had been concerned about. Neither the form of travel nor the pre-trip genetic alterations could do that, even though her powers were originally, or so she thought, born from her genetics. Why was in the form of apparently Melinda having inherited the Kree genetics. So... she still gets it from her mom?

But then...

Downside. She was sent back too early. She was once more, 16 years old and fresh from running away from the orphanage.

BIG downside... The form of travel had... side effects.

-

Skye looked up at Miles, frightened out of her mind at what she'd just been told.

She hadn't given any thought to the bruises - without her gauntlets, she knew she'd cause such things from a bad nightmare or, during the day, internalizing the energy waves.

That hadn't explained her rashes, or the sudden ease that she got sick, or the constant tiredness.

"Leukemia?!"

"Skye... Skye... easy, easy..." Miles glanced around the room, seeing the slight rocking of the furniture that, thankfully, was small enough no one else noticed. "They... They can help."

Wasn't enough she'd spent six months getting back _in_ with the Rising Tide, who had never heard of her, then spent the last month being so good that Miles ended up recruiting her into the actual inner circle of the group, which she'd never been part of originally... Wasn't enough that she missed _every_ opportunity to meet Coulson, and worse, May before Bahrain... but that she got _cancer_ from the damn time trip?

...

-

**Ten years later**

Skye looked into the mirror, and gone was all signs of Daisy Johnson.

The genetics alteration had had time to change her looks, and although those changes had ran their course, there wasn't much of one, at least, the basis of her current appearance, she just looked like _Skye_ now. The Skye that this time tomorrow in the original timeline would be interrupted by two SHIELD agents and have a bag thrown over her head. Apparently, Skye as Coulson-and-May's-Daughter didn't look all that different.

No, the reason there were no _signs_ of Daisy Johnson laid in that Daisy was a strong woman, able to fight off a dozen mooks at her best.

Skye wasn't strong - not physically. Not anymore. The Leukemia - _both times_ \- saw to that. It wasn't lost on her that, current theory had the cause at being a combination of genetic and environmental factors. _She had her DNA completely altered and was sent back in time to 'fuse' with her younger self_.

She was lucky to survive it the first time - considering the form of Leukemia she had has a survival rate of just 30%.

Her Chemotherapy worked to put it into remission the first time, though it didn't work quickly. Two years, and she was in remission for three years after.

The second time, it _barely_ worked - taking almost four years to put her into remission, and just a week ago, the Doctors confirmed that she was now back in the maintenance stage of treatment, but they were giving her a particularly aggressive course of drugs that she couldn't pronounce any of the names of. And every month... she'd need to go get injections. Not just any, though.

She so _badly_ wanted to be on the team again, but... not like this.

A knock on her van door brought her attention away from her medical file she had open in her lap, and she looked up to see Mike Peterson and Ace.

"What happened with the explosion at the lab?" She asked. Mike glanced at Ace, but answered. "One of the others who had," he waved his hand, "... Got angry and..."

She gulped.

"You said that SHIELD could help... But that..."

She nodded. That was why she did the same things on that front so far - the video of his 'rescue'. He had no reason to know about SHIELD could help though, so he didn't just walk in through a field office' front door.

"Am I going to...?"

"No. God no." She whispered, staring at the father and son. That made her mind up.

-

She should have known that they'd "catch" her while Mike was trying to get another job whilst also trying to remain calm. She hoped that May's breathing exercises she'd passed on would hold out, though she knew it wouldn't for long. He was the last remaining 'subject' from Centipedes' most recent batch of 'volunteers'.

By the time she was sat in the cage of the Bus, she already knew she was bruising in several places, and others would soon be visible.

She forgot all that when the hood was removed, and her _interference_ with the timeline hadn't prevented...

She stared at Coulson, as both he and who was probably Ward but she wasn't paying attention began to speak.

Then they were looking at her in concern, then the other guy stepped closer pointing at her neck and she glanced and it _was_ ward and '_oh god its ward'_...

Her panic attack lasted a good five minutes, and when it ended and she came back to herself, she was intensely glad that the cage was made from vibranium, otherwise she was sure the plane would have been destroyed.

She looked up shyly at Simmons who had been brought in at some point, and finished handing her a drink of water.

"Those are some bad bruises..." Simmons muttered, and Skye couldn't help a motion that had become instinctive now, to cover them up. "Has someone been hurting you?"

She shook her head, and, she hadn't meant to say the initials, but it slipped out. "A.L.L."

She looked up and saw that Simmons either _hadn't_ heard her, or didn't know what she meant by the acronym. "I bruise easy." Simmons flickered to the two agents listening in, and Skye nodded slightly with a shrug.

"Are you alright?" Coulson spoke up.

"I... don't like being touched." She shrugged slightly, suddenly feeling incredibly nervous. Jemma suddenly removed a hand from her shoulder, which oddly enough was when Skye realised that Jemma _had_ been touching her, softly. "Not... I mean that... I..." She stopped and took a deep breath... and looking up, saw Jemma give both men a hard look.

She understood immediately, yet something kept her from correcting the misunderstanding.

"I'm sorry about the... well this whole thing, but you hacked into SHIELD and have information we need."

She nodded. "C.. Centipede." She looked between the agents, who showed no sign of confusion _nor_ that they knew what she was talking about. '_Huh, no game now, just straight up interview_'. "The lab that blew up, that was their lab. I was watching it, and looking after the son of one of the last people who had been experimented on when it exploded. I... I tried talking him into going to SHIELD for help but you guys dont exactly make _that_ easy..."

"Easy enough when you make a mistake when hacking us." Simmons spoke, then looked down at the reproachful look from Coulson.

"Hacking SHIELD anonymously is easy. Hacking SHIELD anonymously yet _somehow_," she spoke with sarcastic emphasis, "leaving breadcrumbs is _ridiculously hard_. Legally, I could have tried to play dumb and _you'd have no evidence_ with which to charge me and your team wouldn't find _any_ evidence of any supposed membership in my van because the minute you try to break my encryption, all my data goes bye-bye. But I'm not playing Dumb."

"Why would a Rising Tide hacker want our help?" Ward asked, and Skye risked her mental stability by looking at him... for a millisecond.

"Not, exactly, asking for help. And It's not for me, anyway. My guy, whose Son I was supposed to babysit for a few hours today but I had to cancel on account of the part where friends who may or may not be in an organization warned me that some 'suits' were on their way to my location. And it's for them that I didn't just run." She looked at Simmons, and smiled a little, "for them that I 'Oopsied' when hacking SHIELD and 'accidentally' did the _ridiculously hard_ thing of leaving a trail of breadcrumbs. Forwhich I'm glad you're in here."

Simmons gave a raised eyebrow.

"Super soldier serum. Gamma radiation. Extremis." She looked at Coulsona t the last. "That's basically, but not all of, the cocktail they gave their 'subjects' trying to create supersoldiers. Tested on seemingly random civilians like my guy who after an industrial accident that injured him, was convinced by the 'get better' line. After the others started to explode, well..."

"You stepped in."

She shrugged. "He was just a normal guy who got hurt doing a job he actually liked, but couldn't afford the medical bills because, surprise, his workers comp didn't even cover the ambulance call-out, and the company got out of all insurance claims by blaming the accident on 'human error', and CCTV footage was mysteriously not recorded that day, and the previous days tapes were 'stolen'. Then in comes this group saying, we can make you healthy, we can make you strong, we can make you better. He thought he'd wont he jackpot, and all it took was trying to ignore the illegality of human experimentation to graft superpowers onto people. He didn't think about what the ethics of that said about the people running the experiments... not until the first guy to get the Extremis portion blew up."

She took a breath, and then... "Dosage to explosion was about two weeks. Everyone in their group were dosed with it through those two weeks... and it... it seemed to go like clockwork. He's the last one now. The guy who got dosed before him was the guy who blew up in the lab."

-

It had been, different, not getting kidnapped by Mike, and actually bringing the guy in. Though, different venue, same crap. The Centipede people had tried to nab him, and then the stress of everything almost sent Mike nuclear, but Ward got him with the night-night round in time.

Mike was even stabilised by the hit, like last time.

_Unlike_ last time, the fact she was a member of the Rising Tide's inner circle meant she had _a lot_ of connections, so she saw to it that one of those met her at Ace's aunts house. Coulson was surprised to see the Witsec agent, the pair clearly recognising the other (and didn't that just beat all?) but the fact that the Agent's answer to Coulson's question of what they were doing there with 'Skye called in a few markers to get Ace and his aunt into Witness protection. Apparently, she doesn't trust SHIELD. Who'da thunk?', well... She found his expression _hilarious_.

On the Bus, she explained that.

"He was right. I _don't_ trust SHIELD. I don't believe in Agencies and Organizations. I believe in people. I believe that Mark will do as his job says he would, putting two people who know too much about _bad people_ into a place were those bad people can't get to them. I believe that the people who provide the security for those in Witness Protection do the best they can. And trust me. I can hack into SHIELD, using a Laptop that I won in a Bet using Public Wifi, and _remain anonymous_. I can't make that claim about Witsec's systems."

"Are our systems that bad?"

She just chuckled. "No I'm just that good."

"I take it you wont take me up on that offer, then?"

She sighed. "Join your team... I mean. 'Consult'?"

He nodded.

"Love to." He blinked. "Know why? It's not S.H.I.E.L.D. doing the asking, is it?"

Coulson smirked. "That your way of saying you believe in me?"

She shrugged as she went down the ramp of the Bus to the tarmac of the airfield, and saw her Van pull up just under the tail wing on one side. She looked back at Coulson, gave a mostly-flat look, and simply said, "You did right by Mike, getting him the help he needs to control it. May did right by Ace, protecting him when those goons showed up no matter that she's only here to 'Fly the Bus'. Fitz did right... probably, but I can't think of what for." She grinned at the nearby eavesdropping engineer who blushed and ran off. "And... Simmons did right helping me with..." She trailed off and looked away. "I won't be an Agent, so don't even think about offering."

"I'm not." She looked at him, "Well I wasn't."

"Sure."

-

Peru was... different.

For one thing, During the flight in, Jemma had approached and Skye realised that _yes Jemma heard_. The woman asked her about her medications, her progress and, in the end the questions were too much and she just gave the woman her complete medical file, with a promise not to upload it to SHIELD's network. Next thing she knew, she spent two of the last three hours of the flight recovering from the injections.

Well, not literally.

"Seriously, she's a menace with a needle!" Ward just laughed at her. "And Why was I the only one getting innoculations?!"

Fitz snorted, "What makes you think that?" He was rubbing his arms, "and I know exactly how much of a menace she can be with everything, not just her needles."

"FITZ!"

"Well you are!"

"You're still not over that-"

"It was MY SANDWICH!"

"Seriously?" Skye couldn't help comment and looked to Coulson, who looked as amused as he did lost. "Are they always like this?"

"I don't know. This is only our second mission."

She blinked, remembered, and smirked. "I was your first?"

Coulson grimaced. "Phrasing."

Blinking, she looked at him, and realised, "Yeah. Ew."

Looking a little green, she was first to get into the SUV, trying to get away from that awkward moment.

During the drive, Simmons kept sending her was she thought was surruptitious looks, and she knew why. Simmons probably wanted to ask if she was sure she should be coming along.

She wasn't sure. She knew what was coming, but didn't know how to get out of it. She tried to match her old comments, but they could all tell her heart wasn't in it. Particularly after ten minutes of driving along the unpaved bumpy road had her green for a different reason. After twenty minutes, they stopped long enough for her to recover.

"I'm sorry guys... I don't normally get car sick." She shot a look to Simmons, who knew the truth. "Probably just reaction to those Innoculations."

"Probably." Simmons agreed, yet clearly lying.

No one asked. Skye wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing... though she was sure everyone had caught the undertone, though not understood it.

It wasn't that different on the drive back, except that Fitz had been kind enough to hand over a barf bag so they wouldn't have to stop while under fire.

The Argument went the same, but then she went off-script at her cue.

"Yeah." She looked to Fitz and Simmons, then back to Coulson, "I get the impression _Ward_ doesn't know which one is Fitz and which one is Simmons, and I get the feeling _I've_ seen a lot more gunfire than either of these two, and I'm no Rocket Scientist but even I can figure out that _isn't there a field assessment before they get let out into the field?_ I need to have _serious_ words with whoever decided to let these two out of the lab."

"You're amused?" Ward asked.

She looked at him. "No, I'm not. I'm pissed off. And not just because I just spent the last several hours feeling sick to my stomach because a _certain_ doctor decided I needed a few shots, and then we went for a bumpy joyride that wasn't." She pointed out to the ramp. "We were just in a firefight and I should be _terrified_ because, I'm a hacker, not an Agent, yet I get the very worrying sense that I'm the most level-headed person on this plane right now. I may as well be Team Captain."

Simmons scoffed, and she shot the scientist a not-pleased glare.

Coulson was just giving her a blank look. "And maybe that's not a bad idea because these guys do _not_ like each other much."

"This isn't about that." Ward protested. "I'm a specialist. Today I could-"

Skye tuned that out again, and spoke quietly, yet clearly to Coulson on the other side of the lab. "See them proving the point I just made? Ward obviously didn't get a certain famous 'part of something bigger' speech that I totally stole for the Rising Tide," she gave him an amused grin for a moment, even as everyone else went quiet at her words, "Fitz and Simmons are still in freak-out mode and-" She looked in Ward's direction and sniffed. "Is... do I smell blood?" she moved over, and revealed his blood-soaked shirt.

Simmons went into a different freaked out mode. "You got hurt defending us?! Why didn't you say something-"

Skye backed away as Fitz started muttering about body armors and Simmons fussed over the specialist.

"I saw what you did there." Coulson spoke softly. She looked at him sideways, yet still paying attention to the fuss in the lab. "How much gunfire _have_ you seen, because you didn't freak out. Not that I could tell. Unlike how you do about needles." Skye couldn't help the shudder at the reminder. "See, that still gets a reaction, yet you were basically being shot at today and you act like it was nothing."

"I know my way around a gun." was her low answer. She knew... she had too many things to lie about, that she didn't want to lie about other things, some rather inconsequential, others that would just mean they didn't treat her with kid gloves.

Coulson hmmed, and stepped away, to go upstairs, but as he got on the third rung of the spiral staircase, he looked at her, catching her attention. "One day, you'll want to trust me with whatever you're holding secret."

"My past. But not yet. Not today." She smiled sadly at him, then turned back to the fussing scientist and awkward specialist.

"No. not today." she felt that he was watching her for a second, before he more spoke more up-beat, "Give me advanced warning before you do, so I can get the bar fully stocked. I sense I might need it."

She giggled at that, even as he left.

-

She hadn't anticipated a lot, really, even knowing what was coming.

One idea she'd had for the hijacking was leaving her laptop switched on in her bunk connected to the planes' wifi and hijacking the avionics, along with the security protocols locking them out. And having her phone hidden in the back of the bus so when they ended up there tied up, they'd get back in _without_ having to blow a hole in the plane. But... she hadn't. She'd kept getting distracted, or just plain forgot in the one space of time she had, a space that had originally been taken up with talking to ward. Where she had noticed he was hurt, but since he was getting fussed over while Fitz' inspected the laser powered by evil... she had her perfect moment, and was too lost in watching the three bicker.

And for a long time, she hadn't even talked about her pieces to a puzzle thing. And having not mentioned it to Ward, he couldn't bring it up while talking about a plan to get free, when they did end up there.

What she did have to do was walk them through the bits they knew... essentially giving them the plan.

As a result, while the three were watching the rocket launch at the ramp, Ward actually getting close to the scientists, she was stood at the back, with Coulson and May.

"May tells me you came up with the whole plan."

She twitched. "Yeah well, now I get to tell my buddies in the rising tide that I blew up a SHIELD plane. While the ones who are really anti-SHIELD would probably cheer, the ones who really know me would know what I actually mean, without having to hack in. They'd still find it hilarious that it's basically true and no one died."

"One of the peruvians was blown out of the window."

She twitched again. "Wasn't that the one who held a knife to Simmons throat?" She spoke, as if talking about the weather. She didn't regret the death, and couldn't make like she did. Like it bothered her. Like she wasn't already _that_ jaded. And she didn't regret not being able to fake it.

"You and Simmons do seem oddly close, considering you've just met."

May snorted next to them, a low noise almost whisper quiet, but both caught it.

Skye sighed. "I let her poke me with needles," she twitched, "and she lets me use their magic table. Don't tell Fitz."

"Oh, that how it is? Bribery?" Coulson joked. "what do I get for not telling him?"

"Your Office." She looked at him. "You do realise that by acknowledging it was my plan, that technically that means _I_ hijacked the plane back from the hijackers?" She was kidding, but did her best not to indicate that. "I mean, Team Captain, here. Welcome aboard Skye Airways." She held her hand out for him to shake, and as he did, they both cracked up, and she looked at May who rolled her eyes at their antics. "while not necessary, I would love to have a pilot. Hope you're not afraid of flying." She looked at May, then back to Coulson who started to chuckle. "What?"

"When Ward came aboard, just before we went to pick you up, I tried to tell him that joke."

"... He didn't get that you were making a joke, did he?"

"No." He looked a little disappointed with that.

"Well.. Anytime you want to make a dad joke. Just know that I'll probably laugh."

"Thanks. I think."

"Anytime, _Dad_." He chuckled at bit at that, and she smiled in response as her phone beeped with a message, and she pulled it out and saw the message. Her smile froze.

"Rising Tide?"

"Yeah. Some of the leaders are wondering if I'm serious about staying with you guys." Her smile was fake now.

"Worried about them cutting ties, calling you a traitor?"

She shook her head. "Only reason they've not tried to talk me out is because I basically told them I was going to be a mole. My, uh... ex boyfriend who parted on friendly terms didn't have the heart to tell them I wasn't serious about that, as serious as I was on..." She looked around, nervously.

May caught her look. "Not here as a mole?"

She looked and shook her head.

"Then why?"

She put a fake smile on. "Please, I get to be Captain of a SHIELD Team, going on crazy adventures saving lives, investigating weird tech and rooting out evil."

"And what about the secrets we keep?" Coulson asked, serious.

"Hey, you remember the scandal and mass panic after a hacker released information that SHIELD worked with shapeshifter aliens in the 90's led by an air force officer named Carol Danvers and fought other aliens that were basically space-nazis?"

Phil froze.

"... By the by, Most of the leadership already knew that story when they recruited me years ago, so..."

She left the pair to that one, Coulson and May sharing looks, Coulson clearly understood why she brought that up...

Last she heard, was May commenting, "Looks like she _can_ keep a secret."

-

She knew they'd eventually cotton on, but didn't expect it to be when she took her first weekly oral dose of that drug she couldn't pronounce since coming aboard.

She didn't expect _May_ to be the one...

"This have anything to do with all the bruising you keep getting?" May asked, possibly the longest single sentence spoken towards the hacker.

Skye just showed her other medication, May reading the instructions for daily doses, and nodded.

"Is that why you spend a lot of time with Simmons in the lab?" May pointed to her arm, "and she keeps drawing blood samples?"

"Yes."

"What's she looking for."

The words stuck in her throat, and her eyes began to water as she tried not to let the rush of emotion overwhelm. and May could tell.

"Serious?"

A Nod.

"Should you be out in the field?"

She shrugged, and got control enough to say, "Life's too short."

"That bad?"

"... I... I already beat the odds twice." She whispered. "Best I can hope for? go out doing good, instead of..."

May nodded shortly. "That why you wanted on the Bus?" She shook her head in the negative. "Then why?"

She looked over at the stairs leading up to Coulson's office pointedly, then, hesitantly, at May.

"Me and Coulson?"

She shrugged.

"Why us?"

She didn't answer, just looked down.

"Skye..."

"... I'm... I ca... I'm not... It's..." Her breathing began to shorten and speed up.

"It's.. It's alright, I can see you're not ready to tell us..."

May looked disappointed at that, but not much.

Skye couldn't help it. "Simmons knows. Maybe. I don't... I don't think she's looked that far into my medical file." May looked at her incredulous. "I... I sent her my full medical file like, first day."

"Lot of trust."

"It's Jemma."

"... Point." May paused halfway leaving, "Do... you want me to ask her?"

"If you're a.... match for the, the best-case treatment?" She gulped, and nodded hesitantly, "... I ... I would... I'd app..."

May stepped fully back into her bunk, and rested hands gently on her shoulder. "I wont if you're not ready..."

The silence stretched too long, and May made to leave. She still caught a whispered comment that she realised she wasn't meant to hear. _"I don't think I have that long."_

-

The next few weeks passed pretty uneventfully, and Skye couldn't help wonder why, except for one of those. Dr Franklin Hall didn't get kidnapped by Quinn's mooks shortly after the repairs to the Bus completed, so she didn't go undercover at Quinn Worldwide. What she did when realising that event was 'late' and probably not going to happen, was alert the Tide to suspicious activities in the company, and watched the fireworks.

Coulson had seen her access SHIELD records on Quinn's activity the day before, but didn't comment. Fitz and Simmons both cheered at hearing the company being held to task for violations of international laws, though the man stayed in Malta to avoid getting arrested.

Things happened out of order, too. Simmons ended up infected by the Chitauri electric virus a little early, when during Skye's pre-event searches for info logged things that Coulson decided to investigate.

They were _in time_ to save the fireman... and for that, she was glad she got caught looking into it, though she felt she did a good job 'blaming' tracing Chitauri artefacts after New York to that, adding that Wards little blown-up mission pre-Team Bus was because she'd hacked Vanchat, not SHIELD.

There were some boring missions that didn't happen originally, related to the Chitauri effects remaining behind.

But they got onto the trail of the eye implant at the right time, given that it was on Coulson.

"So, what do you think, Team Captain? Shall we take this mission?" Coulson joked to her as they stood in the briefing room.

Amused, she shrugged. "Sure. Jewel Heist on a train, sounds right up our alley." Before he could say it, She turned to May and added, "Set a course for Stockholm."

May rolled her eyes as she left, "Yes Ma'am."

Skye blinked. "Was... Was she _smiling_ there?"

"You know, I do believe she was." Coulson agreed, smiling to himself at seeing May like that.

Ward frowned. "No she wasn't."

Skye ignored him. "Next thing you know, she'll be playing pranks."

"One could only hope." Coulson muttered, then coughed realising they'd heard.

-

"It's just that I've heard all sorts of stories, and well, some of them are pretty ridiculous." came Simmons voice.

"Really, the stories even made it to Scitech?"

Skye entered the lab to see Ward and the science duo talking - the latter while working on something. It was weird to see it still, Ward actually getting along with them both. And... not actually glancing her way the way she remembered him starting to at this point originally.

Maybe it was that they didn't spend a lot of time together as S.O. and Protege... or because she didn't seek him out socially. Not so much _avoid_ him, just...

"Of course. I especially like the version with the horse." Fitz added in.

"The Cavalry didn't ride in on a Horse."

"I wish we could meet her." Simmons spoke.

She blinked. It... hadn't come up.

"You don't know that..." Ward spoke, realising..

"You know who it is? I... I don't think it's actually a secret, I mean, it's not actually in any files we have access to, so _all_ we've had were the stories-" Simmons started,

"None of which give anything about who it is, other than a woman, Which I think is pretty kick-ass, you know." Fitz finished.

"You're right, it's not classified, but a name given in the stories. And... you have met her."

Skye coughed, for a joke at that point.

"_SKYE_?

"Huh? What did I walk in on?" Skye asked, pretending not to have heard anything.

"Not Skye." Ward rolled his eyes, and looked at her with his agent-face. "And not much."

"Not much?" Fitzsimmons cried.

"And Who is... May? But she transferred from administration..."

"_May_ is the cavalry?"

"Don't call her that."

The three blinked at her, and it took a second to realise that Skye had been the one to say that.

"She... doesn't like being called that. She was a specialist, but then that happened and... Why do you think she spent so long in administration..."

"No idea."

"Not a clue."

"... I guess I get that."

Simmons, Fitz, Ward.

"So I just came down here to check you guys where good to go?" Skye looked at Ward, "Standard Van Surveillance package arranged?" he nodded, "Tech upgrades for said package ready to deploy?" Fitz patted a pair of boxes. "Stake-out Survival Kit?"

Simmons blushed but nodded.

"Stake-out Survival Kit?"

Skye looked at him. "I'm not peeing in a bottle. SHIELD protocol doesn't account for the part where when women are part of a stake-out, women's parts are different from mens in that we don't have penises."

Fitz choked on thin air at that. Simmons blushed, but nodded shyly at Wards' incredulous look between the two.

"Really? I don't recall..."

"Exactly, because there's nothing in there about the people on stake-outs needing to go pee. Or the other one."

-

The crash _hurt_.

It _really hurt_.

She wondered if she should have used some of her power, that she'd been ignoring for a long time, to have cushioned herself... or even Fitz or Simmons, who were also banged up, but not as much as herself.

Yet not long after she was back out, pretending she was fine... and then the plan was for Ward to go into a building.

She changed it up, pointing out that she was roughly the same height, people would look past her as a non-threat and female and dark skinned enough that the watchers wouldn't tell, probably.

That Coulson's former protege confirmed that her handler didn't seem to know what she was actually capable of was a bonus, so, she went in.

Revealing to the team she knew several languages wasn't a problem, she simply couched it in terms that a lot of coding was basically far more complex than 'computer languages', and she had had plenty of down time to learn. Only Simmons for sure got what she meant, though May probably figured it out too.

It was when she was discovered and attacked on all sides that she realised that she _had_ to use her powers to survive... though being away from the team...

Her comms to the bus confirmed that Akela's deadswitch implant was disabled literally seconds before it was activated, maybe ten seconds after she spotted herself in a mirror.

That gave her the opening to turn the glasses off and _truly_ fight back in a way that her own body wouldn't let her.

By the time she was extracted by Ward and Coulson, her arms were _a mess_. Because she forgot, she didn't have her gauntlets.

Her recovery time was a mere week, and she was up and about, arms mostly healed, not even a cast, despite the severe damage to Simmons shock.

Simmons was _not_ quiet about that.

"Skye, you can't keep doing this! You're going to get yourself KILLED! YOU ALMOST DIED!"

Skye couldn't argue against it, not without revealing the leukemia.

She was trying to start a bit of strength training - not because of ward, but because she couldn't even punch any of the guards in the building.

And Simmons had stopped her after the third punch.

The argument in the cargo hold had brought attention - Fitz was in the lab, staring, while Coulson, May and Ward were on the upper level balcony, shocked to silence. May, she was sure, had probably heard Simmons from the cockpit.

"So?"

"So. SO!? Skye, you bruise when I _hug_ you. You bruise when Ward slaps you on your back. Most days you have joint pains, you wake up with headaches _at best_, and I've spent enough mornings helping you out of the toilet to know that its a rare occasion for you _not_ to vomit up whatever you had for breakfast, which you struggle to eat because you just have no appetite, and despite forcing down as much food as you can down your throat you're still severely underweight, we've all had to catch you from bouts of dizzines from standing up too quickly for your constitution and you're tired all the time and it doesn't take much for you to end up out of breath, leading me to believe that the doctor in charge of your treatment missed diagnosing you with anemia. You can't go on like this." Skye was quiet, not responding even as she realized the team all heard.

Simmons, not realizing that, drew a breath before saying, "I don't think you should be on the Bus." Skye stared at her friend, and Simmons knew she had, fucked up. "I.. I didn't mean it like that... Your... you're killing yourself, bit by bit, Skye and I don't want to see the day that my best friend keels over because she can no longer stand up straight. And if the others knew about your leukemia, I think they'd agree."

Skye stared down at the floor, even as she heard the intake of breath from everyone - and Simmons sudden realization that they weren't alone. She ignored the conversation, nigh on argument going on.

Coulson stepped up to her, silent.

"Is this...?"

She looked up, and for once, he saw not the brave front she tried her best but didn't always succeed in putting on. She saw that he wasn't alone, May at his side.

"Remission?" May asked.

She slowly nodded. "S-second time. I'm in the maintenance stage again."

"What.. When..." Coulson was struggling to ask, so she looked at him, and spoke. "Ten years ago... wow, this month, I was recruited into the Rising Tide,"

"They've been going _that_ long?" May glared at him. "Sorry, continue."

"Anyway, the guy who got me in, Miles, he basically had me in a sit-down with some of the leadership - and yes, I know some of their real identities and no I'm not sharing - when one of them noticed something, specifically, the bruising that I'd started to get, the dizziness and shortness of breath were my first outward symptoms. I couldn't afford a hospital visit never mind the tests, so they all basically bundled their savings together. Six months of being part of the Rising Tide and... I found out I had leukemia. Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, to be precise. "

"A.L.L." Coulson spoke in recognition.

"Y... yes. Treatment... the treatments were, like, ludicrously expensive." She stared at both defiantly, "And it was the Rising Tide who stepped in so I wouldn't be burdened with debt." She looked down as she nodded, understanding her loyalty on that regard. "It took two years of aggressive treatments... Chemotherapy. Even Radiation therapy, because CNS chemo wasn't working and... and it had spread to..."

"To your brain." May gasped.

She nodded slowly.

"Anyway, just over two years after I was diagnosed, they confirmed I was in remission, and I was put into the second stage treatment, they call it Intensification. lots of different drugs, and intrathecal administration of some drugs I can't pronounce for the Central nervous system issues I still had. It, didn't last long, but I was so bed-ridden I couldn't even walk. once I was placed into third stage - Maintenance therapy, I started physical therapy, because, well, I couldn't walk. I... it was embarrassing and more to have to learn to walk again. But, all that bed-time did wonders for my computer skills, among a few."

She tried to smile, but failed.

"You hacked shield from a hospital bed?" Coulson asked curious.

"... Yup."

Coulson blinked, and chuckled sadly.

"Languages?" May asked.

"I already knew Mandarin before joining the Tide, and they had ideas for others I could learn. I, uh... they decided that to keep me 'safe' from any mistakes I might make hacking while out of my mind of the drugs, to put me in a more administration role of the group. I basically arranged, all kinds of things. Training for the lower ranks who weren't near as good, help to find paid work that wasn't unethical, that kind of thing. Part of that meant learning languages since we recruit world-over."

"After a year of physio, I was out of hospital, and that's when I learned that I had no medical bills." She rolled her eyes, "They always told me to worry later, that they'd 'figure something out'. Never told me that they already had arrangements about the bills, and only found out when it came back. Two years out of hospital, three of remission..."

"That was five years ago... How long did..." Coulson swallowed, suddenly finding it difficult to talk.

"Four years to go into remission, this time." She shrugged slightly. "I... I told them not to let me get so bad physically that I'd have to suffer physio again. It was still a near thing though."

She swallowed, and then said, "I uh... i did my best to keep my mind active, and about two years ago, was when I learned that... I'd actually been with the Rising Tide longer than half of the, uh, inner circle... and none of the others. I mean, some of those who joined before me, had already left or were inner circle so... they inv.."

"You're inner circle?"

She nodded, glancing up.

"Are... are you ready to tell us, why you joined the team?" Coulson asked.

She looked at May for a moment, pleading.

"She's not here for SHIELD, phil."

"Then what?"

"Us." May looked at Skye. "You didn't explain beyond that. ... are you..."

She gulped. "Did... did you ask... did simmons do..."

"If I knew it was leukemia I would have. You were looking for compatible matches for stem-cell treatment?"

She shrugged, nodded and shook her head, looking down. yes and no.

Coulson was confused. "Why do you think we'd be compatible? I hear that, generally blood relatives... wait... you said once you were a foster kid? You wanted us to access... but you said not for SHIELD..."

"No." May answered for her. "That wasn't the only reason why us."

Skye looked at her, then at Coulson. "Rem-remember what you said about how I was kind of an 0-8-4, of unknown origin? There's... there's no _kind of_ about it."

Coulson blinked. "you think you might be an Alien? That I'd call down thor and... no. Not it."

She sighed... and grabbed hold of their hands, pulled them to the lab passed the stunned eavesdropping specialist and scientists... and promplty locked the door so they couldn't get in.

Coulson and May went along, otherwise Skye wouldn't have actually been able to physical pull them, physically weak with hardly any muscle mass in her as she was.

Skye activated the privacy function of the glass windows, frosting it so the others couldn't even watch... and then pulled up her medical file on the holographic table.

"Wait, you were serious that Simmons let you use the table?"

She chuckled... then it turned into a belly laugh and May had to hold her up so she wouldn't fall over as she had a mini freak-out breakdown.

After she calmed down, she went to the section on blood tests, and they saw one they didn't expect.

Genetic Sequencing... and brought up the results... and then loaded _their_ SHIELD files, specifically, the same section on theirs... and performed a basic comparison test built into the software, the one with a label that included the word 'parental'.

The two agents stared.

"... When I said, 0-8-4, even in light of... I do mean it." Skye insisted, as she looked at May with a pointed look.

"I've never been pregnant." She whispered.

"But you have known each other long enough that, in that regard at least, you... you could have..." Skye took a deep breath. "I... I... I alre.. already knew this... when..." She took another deep breath, but it wasn't working.

Coulson practically shot forward, yet gently took her into a hug. "You thought we were your parents?"

She looked up at him, and broke down. "Hoped."

There was silence for a minute, before Skye broke it with, "What, dad, No comment about Immaculate conception?"

Even as Coulson struggled to contain his giggles, May rolled her eyes, "Okay, for him, I can believe it."

Skye shot her a look. one that was, all-May.

"..."

"..."

"Oh god there's two of them." Coulson gasped out in between chuckles.

He took a bit to calm, and when he did, Skye looked up at him, amazed that he still held her in a gentle hug.

"You... you believe me? That someone must have been messing with... and made me from you?" She knew, technically it was herself who did that. So it was true enough.

"... I do." Coulson answered first, and looked up as May nodded, only to verbally agree because Skye wasn't looking, eyes shut scared out of her mind of rejection.

"Could..." Skye glanced at the door.

"I'll get Simmons. I take it she really hadn't noticed?" Skye shook her head, and May sighed. "I'm guessing there's more in your file that would have led her to that eventually?" Skye nodded slower.

-

Skye's fears were for nought - the revelation that Skye was _somehow_ Coulson and May's child without May having ever been pregnant, with both of them stepping into the roles voluntarily rather than dismissing it as either a lie or 'coincidence that you have genes that match half of ours each', resulted in Simmons backpedalling, though not about the field-work. On that, _everyone_ was in agreement - Skye was to stay on the bus. No if's, ands or buts. Simmons did perform the tests... and not long after, got the bad news.

After that Coulson began to disappear for a day here, a day there, _usually_ with May.

It was weeks before Skye realised that there had been no abduction of 'Scorch' in hong kong... because there hadn't been a hack by Miles. Not until he sent her a warning that some dudes from a think-tank were paying a lot of money for him to do the hack, and he was giving her the heads up because the ones doing the asking were rather scary-looking.

She took that straight to Coulson and May, though added that she didnt' think they should operate like they had the warning... not that there was much point to acting that way, as they didn't know what Centipede were after. Not anything Skye could use as a basis for an actual pre-emption, anyway.

That entire affair went _so much better_.

Though it did reveal to Miles the truth, because there was no way Coulson could not act like a dad, and Simmons not react to Miles's reaction to Coulson's behavior...

"Sooo much about you makes sense now." He spoke despite being cuffed in the cage, and the 'family' being in front of him - Skye sat opposite. "You... you didn't get that speech of yours from SHIELD, did you?"

Skye blushed...

"Wait... You DID steal Fury's 'part of something bigger' speech?" Coulson asked.

"Wait.. it's _Director Fury's_ Speech?"

They nodded. Even Skye, which was telling to both agents.

Miles laughed hard, and when he calmed down a bit, he sighed and joked, "does this mean we're like, a super-covert front for a division of SHIELD Hackers? Because seriously, that would actually be awesome, and fitting with some of the cover-ups _we've_ done, like hiding superpowered people from the bad guys like Centipede - and By the way, if you told us the name of that group I'd have called you when they made the initial overture rather than after the deal."

"You know of enhanced people?"

Miles rolled his eyes. "I shall answer that with 'I have no idea if they _aren't_ on the index', on account that we never checked the index for who was on it already. And operational security means I can't tell you any names."

Skye chuckled softly.

Miles shook his head, "And to think when we started we actually _hated_ SHIELD..."

"You did?"

He nodded, and Skye sank as she knew what was coming then. "Skye helped us see that the world wasn't quite ready for a lot of the truth. That there were secrets that should be kept. So we keep them with as much zeal as we expose other secrets."

"Like what happened to Quinn Worldwide?"

Miles grinned. "My greatest work."

"Show-off."

"Hey, we can't all be so good that we _hack shield from an old laptop you won in a bet using public wifi in a hospital bed_... or rarer still, all that and _never get caught, unless you wanted to be_. I make my work a bit more showy because you hurt my poor male ego." He grinned at her sighs. "I can't even be mad at you for it, you're too modest about it.. except when you need to make a point, but still."

-

Coulson couldn't help the question. Originally, this was the 'you've been keeping something from us' conversation. Now, well, it was... a might bit different.

"How long have you actually known about May and I?"

Skye sighed. "This isn't the first time I... that I tried to even just meet either of you. You were always moving around, and then the Rising Tide recruited me and when I realised how they viewed shield, I... I didn't tell them because... well, they were Anti-SHIELD, and then I was diagnosed and... And then I was in Hospital when the news about new york dropped, and when I went to look at the SHIELD reports about it..." She froze for a moment. "I... I took the opportunity at hand at full speed and didn't... didn't really think it through other than 'get to meet my biodad', and 'get to know the person, not the agent'." She looked away. "I never had a plan about when to tell you, other than when I could physically get the words out. And with May, same thing upto... up to bahrain. But then that happened, and I... I watched from afar as her marriage fell apart and... I didn't want to pile on that." She took a deep breath, and asked, "What, uh... gave it away?"

"You were pro-shield with the Rising Tide from the beginning? Used Fury's speech for years with what, new recruits?"

She grinned softly. "That's part of my 'join the rising tide' pitch actually."

"Fury will be pissed."

"Yeah." she sighed. "Still not told him that they know his little secret from '95?"

"Oh, he knows. He's just too busy to come chew you out for stealing his material."

-

It only made her think about order of events when she realised that not only did she not have a techbane bracelet the _second_ time she got to meet Victoria hand, but that Ward and Fitz' mission to georgia for said agent had occurred without her noticing. How, when they came back fine she didn't know, as the bus _hadn't_ been their method of extraction.

Thinking about it, she'd done a quick check and wondered just why, in this timeline, they _did_ have one planned.

No interference from herself had been needed.

No wonder she didn't notice, though, it happened while she was recovering from her little stunt posing as Akela Amador.

But for this timeline, that meant that the first time Victoria hand met her was during the recovery mission for Coulson.

The setup for that trap hadn't involved Mike's son, Ace, on account that he was still in witsec with his aunt. She had been serious about that, and didn't mind the butterfly effect from that change.

She just had hoped it meant Coulson not getting abducted, yet that's what happened, and Hand came on the plane giving orders.

It was... weird, how their first meeting panned out.

"So, you're the one responsible for turning the Rising Tide into an asset." Victoria Hand spoke suddenly after a full thirty-second stare-down.

Skye... was confused, because as far as she knew, that was not only a secret kept by Coulson, May and Fury (she'd suggested Coulson at least follow his loyalty to SHIELD on that score, but share her suggestion to keep it ultra-secret), but that most in the Rising Tide didn't know that. "... Uh..."

"Don't worry, it's still off the record. I didn't understand why they're still officially considered a threat, until I learned about your presence on this team the other week, and confirmed with an, asset, of mine within the group that it was mostly your doing."

That narrowed the list considerably, unless they had gone lax on operational security. There was only one inner circle member that had both joined the group _after_ Skye, and also knew that it was Skye who pushed for that change.

And she should have known, really.

"Here to engage my consultant services?" She asked quietly.

"You've been tracking Vanchat for longer than we have, and we already know that the helicopter was procured by him. Given that you were also tracking Centipede before us..."

She nodded, and the agent basically, in a nutshell, gave her carte blanche, even going so far as suggesting to engage the services of the Rising Tide through Skye, and the group would be 'compensated' accordingly.

Against Medical Advice, she insisted on being with the support team when they located the place, and Victoria Hand herself was there when they both heard Coulson's screams... and so heard Skye's panicced whispered cry of 'dad' and ran off.

The debriefing happened in the Lab, where Simmons was caring for both 'Coulsons'. Victoria took the basic story of Skye being the 'secret' daughter of Phil and Melinda well. 

Victoria parted with 'I look forward to the day she joins SHIELD, I'd love to have her on my team."

_Quite_ the change in tune. Skye had no idea how. (she did, but didn't believe it).

From then, Coulson spent most of his time recovering in his office, hiding from the world, but not from May or Skye, the former given an open door policy, not that she'd had stayed away if he had banned her. Skye, though, likewise, spent most of his recovery with him. Learning about the family. Stories about Lola. How Lola ended up 'improved' by SHIELD.

He had a series of secret phone calls he sent her away for, and that worried her. She suspected something...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I... don't recall writing this and only found it at rereading my stories. So late posting. Oops. Written late-november ish.


	11. She's a Singer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that Nationals Park opened 2008. that's why I chose it, so there isn't actually a corresponding real-life concert to match it to.

**2002**

She looked around the half-way house, tightly clutching her bag of possessions.

"Are you sure this is..."

"Safe? No." Her friend spoke. Only introduced as 'Nat', the red-head at her side looked around with a more critical eye, and agreed with Skye's unspoken desire. "Yeah, you're not staying here. Come on."

She'd had a crazy forty-eight hours. Between the Foster Parents actually turning out to be part of the Mafia, the hit on said parents from some of their enemies, and the police having tried to pin the whole thing on the 'foster kid going postal', and being saved from the second hit attempt (that succeeded) by, well, a member of the Russian Mob, she guessed from the hint of accent and the russian weapons in said woman's possession... yeah Crazy was pretty much it.

And Friend was probably overstating it, but not all that much. She didn't _have_ friends. Just people she knew who hated her guts, or people who knew who she was but didn't interact with her at all, because what could a thirteen-year-old orphan high-school-drop-out-waiting-to-happen foster kid offer? So someone who _will_ talk to her, but _doesn't_ hate her guts, in comparison? yeah, friend will do.

It didn't actually take long before Nat had pulled her to a rather unremarkable house in another part of the city, though she couldn't tell if it were Harlem, the Bronx, Queens or Brooklyn on account of still being... out of it.

"Where..."

"Safe house." Nat spoke, and looked at her. "This is not known to the Bratva... The russian mob." Nat exaplined, and Skye nodded slowly. "This... well, this is _my_ safe house."

Skye gulped, and sent a quick smile even as she slowly collapsed onto a chair. "th..."

"You're welcome."

"What... do I owe for...?"

"I'm not actually part of the Bratva. I do not require anything done in kind... though I would like to know your name."

"... Oh.. right... It's M..." She paused... "Skye." A look from Nat seemed to say, 'a fake name, really?' and she added, "I hate the one that the nuns at St Agnes gave me. I... choose to... go by... Skye. You?"

"Natalia is... as good a name as any. Like yourself, others have given me names I do not like, though..." the girl frowned and shook her head. "Nevermind."

"... so If you're not part of the... why were..."

"Why was I with the group of Bratva members, acting like one of them?"

"... yeah..."

Natalia smiled slightly, and sat down across from her. Skye noticed that at some point she wasn't aware, the girl must have gone into the kitchen and made some drinks, as they both held a cup of something. She sipped her own as Natalia began to talk, and noted absently it was tea. And not horrible tea, either, but the good stuff an english foster mother once let her try. "I was investigating them. While your foster parents were known to myself as Mafia, I did not know they were fostering... until yesterday. I told the lieutenant you were an innocent, and as such not a target. He did not agree with the latter part."

"So you're a P.I?" Skye blinked, and realised, "hey, your accent's gone." It was also sudden that she noticed... _a lot more_. details came into focus. Nat appeared only a little older than herself, but had a general aura of being _waay older_. The girl's expressions were mostly tiny, barely noticable micro-expressions, that Skye knew she could only read from experience dealing with reading past the masks people put on in foster homes - from both the parents and kids. The room was decorated only with basics, holding nothing to actually _identify_ whose house it was... though, one personal touch was a bookcase filled with cases of old cassette tapes and CDs. No TV in the lounge, just a wood-frame hi-fi system with not just cassette and cd players, but a top-mounted vinyl player... and next to it, a container half-filled with vinyl record albums. The Lounge was also layed out with a wide area in the middle, so if the occupant got lost singing...

And Natalia was grinning now as she turned back to the woman. "Of a sort." Then the grin faded, "Do you like music?"

"... anything but Rap... and Heavy Metal. Something I can actually sing along to and _keep up with_."

-

**2004**

She hadn't seen Natalia all that often over the years since... since Natalia helped her to basically run away - not just from the foster parents but the system entirely. Sure, they spoke at _least_ once a month, often twice, sometimes even three-times a month... over the phone, which was actually easier once she got a cell phone and they traded numbers. and _friend_ was actually rather correct, though she knew Natalia never told her what she actually did for a living, (except that P.I. was kind of near enough) and missed some planned phone calls because of a 'case'.

Knowing she'd been good with computers, she _had_ tried to use that to make a living, but... well, without a record and looking her age, getting work proved next to impossible, as for the work she could get, it was what she refused to take - nothing illegal, nothing that would put people in danger or ruin their lives.

Natalia actually had the suggestion of what to go for, and between the two were at least able to craft an identity for her where it would be... socially and _legally_ acceptable to carry a fake name.

All it took was not knowing Natalia was early for their night out, and had heard her singing in the shower...

And two months of constantly being hounded (well, not constantly, just some text messages three or four times a day, plus brought up at _least_ five times in each phone call that were actually a weekly-affair for the last two months) and finally, she'd stopped saying 'no' and actually decided to put her other two talents to work.

That was why, a week ago, she'd had a meeting. And then another. Then a recording Session. And now... now she was walking out onto a stage, wearing clothes and makeup that at least aged her up to _not_ look like jailbait.

Not a big one, not a big stage in the middle of a stadium... just the small stage of a upmarket-seeming hole-in-the-wall bar in middle-of-nowheresville, Virginia.

And, front and centre of the audience, a familiar red-head giving her a thumbs up as she nervously sat down on the stool next to the mic, and gave a look to the small local band that had been practising with her.

-

The applause was... unexpected. That Natalia started it, was.

"Thank you."

"Hey, you ever played on stage before? You look nervous." Someone spoke, and she wasn't sure who.

"No, this,, this was my first time."

Then Natalia just _had_ to show her secret like for innuendo, because she hollered out, "What, we're your first?! that's sweet!"

_How_ the red-head managed to make her innuendo perfectly clear to everyone without a hint of innuendo in her tone, Skye had no clue, only that... everyone whistled and hollered at that with shit-eating grins even as she shrunk a little in embarrassment.

"Got another?"

She nodded, to Natalia who asked, though the red-head was obviously trying to... "This next song, I wrote about a friend." She backed away a bit, whispered to the guitarist, who spread the word, and then she began to sing about friends and how embarrassed they can make you... but you wouldn't give it up for anything, because they mean the world to you. _that_, Natalia was quiet about when it was over and everyone else was cheering. She didn't need pressuring into starting the third song...

-

**2007**

Playing in Washington D.C. was always a headache, what with 'big brother' Alphabet Agencies that she did her best to avoid the attentions of. Thankfully, whenever she was somewhere to sing, she was in her 'on-stage persona', so lots of face-hiding from all those CCTV with Facial-recognition, and anything to tie her to her fledgling hacking activist career.

What got her, really, was being famous. Well, not on the likes of Big A-list movie stars like Simon Williams, Or Television Stars like Patricia Walker. Not even to the likes of the band she was actually going to be performing with. Not _With _with. Just, supporting act when they're off-stage getting ready for the next performance, that kind of thing. But the crazy thing was, _she had fans_. Fans that were here to see her own performance.

Just how she was managing it, she honestly didn't know. As she stepped up to the mic and began singing, she had no idea how she was hiding her nerves at performing in front of _30,000 goddamn people_. The most she had performed in front of before had been 7,000, and that was at the Verizon - an _indoor_ venue, and not National Park. 

She did her two songs, both got a _lot_ of applause, and then she was back stage shaking in her boots and glad that Natalia had once more attended. Though for once, she wasn't alone.

"Skye, this is Melinda. Mel, this is that friend I was telling you about."

The woman, asian descent - possibly chinese. She was also wearing a shirt from the last concert, and looked to be in her thirties... "Hello." She spoke. "... you're not used to performing to a crowd, are you?"

Skye laughed shortly as Natalia took an arm and she, half-supported by Nat, walked to the room she had in the stadium. "if you call thirty-thousand people a crowd... no. How could you tell?"

The three women laughed. Skye looked at the woman as they finally got to her room and collapsed with a sigh in the comfortable sofa. The woman, Mel, was wearing one of her licensed merch T-shirts from her tour at the beginning of the year to advertise her first solo album. Though 'tour' was not strictly accurate, as she had just been supporting acts for other bands at any attended by more than a thousand people. "Nice shirt."

"Thanks. I like it." Mel returned with a grin.

A knock at the door, and Skye looked up as one of the staff attached to the headlining band poked his head in, "Hey C.B, another supporting act can't play their bit, the bosses are asking if you're up to performing a few more songs?"

She blinked. "Who can't? Kelly?"

"The Paradise of Dreams. Carl and Laney's gone to the airport. Family emergency or something."

She slowly nodded. "What's Kelly said then? She's got more material to pull from..."

The guy grinned sheepishly, "But didn't have the crowd reaction you did, and the boss said you get first dibs. Also, you get a good bonus so..."

"She will." Nat spoke up, grinning and glanced to her friend, "Right Mel?"

Mel looked at Skye.

Skye blushed, but nodded.

-

**2010**

"Woah wait... you want me to _what?_"

Nat shrugged, "You're the one asking me to be a backing dancer for your video... So what if I want credit under an alias? _No one_ even knows your real name... chosen or otherwise, except me."

Skye didn't think to remember how that wasn't strictly true - she'd only met with Mel a few times, and always when the woman had gone with Natalia, but otherwise was clueless if the woman had attended any other of her gigs, though if she thought about it, she would sure that was true given she'd been told one time that Nat had only found Mel liked her music after bumping into her at one of the gigs.

What she was wondering instead, was... "Why Natalie Rushman?"

Nat sighed and shrugged. "I'm going undercover."

"... How dangerous?"

"Not much."

"Nat..."

"No really, not much. Stark Industries."

"... You spying on Iron Man?"

Nat blinked, then shook her head. "No, I... no. You... what do you know about... Stane?"

"Sold weapons to the Ten Rings terrorist group, arranged Stark's kidnapping, the location where Stark was held, why it took so long for the Air Force to find him, why they _did_ find him, how long it _really_ took Stark to build a suit, that Stark's skill with computers is really oversold because he's busy learning all kinds of other things to pay the skills attention, what _really_ happened on the freeway. Why?"

Nat was bemused... "Have you done anything for them?"

"... Well, yeah. Jarvis already had a line to me from when I tried hacking in a few times and found some discrepancies and flagged them for him and Stark _before_ all that. He asked me for help finding Stark. For Stark _Industries_ though, no. You want my help cementing the cover then, I guess?"

"Please."

"Sure. But on my terms, got it? If you're going to be credited, there's got to be a reason for it, uh... hollywood-wise."

-

Skye looked at the video, then at her friend.

"Not Dangerous. Ha."

Nat sighed.

"Hey, next time you want me to break like... a hundred laws hacking a company that provides weapons and stuff to the government... do it yourself."

"I'm not a hacker."

"And I wasn't a singer until I met you. Tell whoever you work for that you have the next three months off... or say you're out Training or whatever."

"...What?"

Skye was amused. "By the time we're finished, _you will be_."

-

"I thought you were teaching me how to hack?"

Skye looked at the boxes of files they were carrying. "Hollywood has a crazy idea about how hacking works. Proper hacking has a bit more literal _paper_ work than most think."

"... You're using that excuse and my legal access to get rid of your paper trail, aren't you?"

"... No comment."

The pair stacked the two boxes on several others in the back of Skye's van, that sat in the loading dock of a government facility.

"You know, this-"

"So is hacking, say, Hammer Industries if you're not a government spy, which... _I'm_ not. And just because Stark said _he_ won't push for a prosecution, doesn't mean Uncle Sam won't if they learn I got into SI's computers."

"... Do you still have..."

"... No Comment."

Nat just laughed as they walked back into the building proper for the next load.

-

Skye just watched as Nat broke through half-a-dozen firewalls, cracked the encryption on a 'protected' server, grabbed several _gigabytes_ of information that she transferred to a _Secure_ server and then crashed the computer network she had hacked into, then began getting out without leaving any... other... evidence behind.

She nodded as the screen confirmed the log-off and hit the stop-watch. "Nine minutes. Not bad."

"... Beat the record for most of your... Rising Tide... friends."

Skye nodded, "but not mine, right?" She grinned.

Nat playfully grumbled about her own sub-5-minute record, and asked, "So who did we just hack, anyway?"

Skye grinned widely. "Oh, no one. Just... some 'program' ran by the KGB."

Nat paled. ".... What? But... that security was _shit!_"

Skye laughed harder. "You think that was weak-sauce.... try hacking the biggest of all the 'big brother' agencies. They think their security is the bees' knees, but have the weakest of _all of them_."

"... I'm not hacking the FBI Unless you mean the CIA's reputation for beign secure is Bullshit."

Skye grinned, and waved her to the side. "Watch and learn, grass-hopper. Start the clock."

"... in five... four..."

Skye began the hack on the silent mark, and _three_ minutes later, had logged in, transferred a good terabyte of data, then logged out whilst erasing her tracks...

"... oh..."

"Like I said. And I only clear the logs at the end just in case anyone manually checks the logs. No alarms tripped. No pirate noticing I was logged in... even if he was also in at the same time."

"You broke their RSA implementation. You have access to SHIELD."

"And... do you think you could replicate that?"

Nat thought for a moment, and nodded. "Now I know what you did... but... not nearly that quickly, which-"

"-isn't actually a problem. I _could_ have gone slow, but I work on the assumption they at least have real eyes on the systems, and going slow _would_ get noticed by those. But otherwise, yeah. Their cyber security has more holes than swiss cheese."

Nat was too shocked by that, that she forgot once she got over it that Skye had just stolen a lot of data from SHIELD systems.

"Now. Your little hack was.. pretty good even if you _didn't even know_ who you were hacking." Skye giggled at that, as by now she knew _a little_ of Nat's history (like being former KGB). "I'd say you passed the final test."

Nat smiled...

"What say we celebrate?"

The smile froze. "... How?"

"... Oh nothing big... Celine's got this private party going tomorrow and..."

-

Skye smiled to herself as she watched footage of her friend 'returning to work' and being debriefed. Only lightly though.

"_And just what brought this little vacation on, Agent Romanoff?"_

Nat shrugged. _"I had to call in one of my contacts for assistance during the Hammer Situation. They decided that the legal risk was too great for them to give a repeat performance so ensured that my own skills in that area were brought up to speed."_

_"And as a result, you went from knowing just a little more than enough to... browse the internet, to rating as one of the best hackers in Shield."_

Nat smiled slightly. _"I don't know if I'd got that far, sir."_

Skye blinked seeing an old friend from the Orphanage step up to Nat's side. _"Whos' the friends?"_

_"Someone who doesn't want the risk that goes with working for Shield. Or any agency."_

_"That's a big risk, Romanoff."_

_"I trust them."_

_"... You?"_

A Nod.

_"Trust these hackers?"_

_"Hacker, Singular. It's just one, but yes. I do."_

_"Why?"_

_"I've known her for eight years."_

Skye noticed that the guy at Nat's side stared at the woman for a moment, before giving a nod and looking back at the Director.

_"If she tries to Hack SHIELD, you know we'll have to go after her."_

Skye was glad that Nat had a decent poker face and she didn't react in the manner that would give away that Skye already had. _"Of course."_

_"Does she know you're SHIELD?"_

_"I do not believe so." 'Liar'_. Skye grinned to herself - Nat _knew_ that Skye already knew she was SHIELD. _"But if it comes to it, I would want to be the one to bring her in, Sir."_

_"You don't get to decide that. Especially if we don't even know that it's your 'friend' should she try and we catch her."_

Oh how true that would be...

When the meeting finally finished, as the two agents left, another camera angle she switched to... she smiled to herself as Nat winked at the camera on the way out.

-

**2012**

In the aftermath of the Battle of New York, Natasha and her partner, Clint both disappeared from SHIELD Radar.

Skye smiled as Clint gave her a hug when he came in, and still had the twitch of thought about how her 'big brother' was her best friends' partner at SHIELD.

"When did you get in?" He asked.

"Late last night." She replied, and then hugged her BFF to Clint's shock... only for both to get 'dogpiled' by Clint's two kids, and the pair mimed being crushed. When they got out from the 'pile', one kid apiece hugged close, Skye had to ask, "So, Archer-boy, how long you worked for SHIELD?"

"How did you..."

She looked at Nat, who only just started to realise what her presence meant. for once, _Skye_ was the one with the secret and she felt... okay she didn't feel good for having kept this from Nat for two years, knowingly.

"... Skye?"

Clint looked between her and Nat. She rolled her eyes, "She's the one who pushed me into my current career."

"You never did say what that was..." Clint pointed out, "And, when was that?"

"Ten years ago, and I'm a singer-songwriter."

"Skye?"

"Yes, my awesome BFF?"

"... You know Clint?"

"... He's the 'big brother' I mentioned?"

"... Oh..." And Nat promptly started giggling.

"Natasha?" Clint wondered.

Natasha laughed out, "She's the one who taught me to hack!"

"Wait... that was you?!"

Skye nodded with a grin. "Yep. I'm the one that turned Nat from knowing just slightly more than enough to browse to browse the internet... to being one of the best hackers in Shield." She spoke it with an impression of Fury... and Clint just _knew_ she'd somehow seen that.

"You hacked into shield?"

"In under three minutes!" Nat added with a laugh. "_BEFORE_ I returned to SHIELD!"

Clint chuckled at that, but then frowned again. "You said she didn't know you were shield."

"I Lied." Nat inserted for a moment, serious, then returned to chuckling with the kid in her arms (the poor boy had no idea what was going on but found the laughter infectious).

Skye's own amusement faded watching this... then turned to Clint and asked, "What's wrong?"

Clint sighed, but said nothing as he took his two kids from them and left the room.

Natasha's laughter had changed to silent crying then and Skye realised something wasn't just wrong...

-

**2013**

Skye sat down in the cockpit, looking out into the darkness of the night sky ahead of the plane.

She 'felt' May's eyebrow, but said nothing, who also said nothing.

Five minutes later, she itched from the silence but, not knowing what to say... began to sing one of her songs. Five words in, Melinda was singing with her, in time.

Five minutes after that... Skye looked at May, and asked, "still got the shirt?"

May, no longer the expressive woman she'd met a few times before 2008, but the closed-off woman who'd been to two of her gigs since then... smiled slightly in her direction, but said nothing.

Then Skye frowned. "Hang on... Coulson hasn't said anything... did... have you told him we've met before?"

"No."

She nodded slowly, "Uh... care to tell me why not?"

"Nat trusts you. If you want him to know, you'll tell him. Otherwise... not relevant to why you're here."

"Oh." Beat. "Thanks."

A slight head nod... then... "One more song?"

This time, May opened with five words from the lyrics of one song, before Skye joined in.

Later, as she went past her bed, she could have sworn she heard Ward in his pod asking the science twins in theirs to not play their music so loud, who protested about not having been listening to anything.

She left that, and went into the cargo bay of the Bus, and climbed into the SHIELD Standard issue SUV. Knowing it would be five minutes before Coulson came down wondering about her being here, she used the opportunity to send a message to Nat with a picture from that day - a Selfie with Coulson.

'_Guess who was the one pitching recruitment last week. - your BFF.'_

she got a reply pretty damn quick.

'_Lucky. and to think I got the pitch from C.B. - your drama coach.'  
'Ps. so that's where the initials came from?_'

_'IKR?! He's awesomesauce! And yeah, C.B.'s delivery needs work.'_  
_'His last attempt with me was just... :crying: - the drama queen. Ps. WDYM?'_

_'UR Alias. + yeh evn Iron Goatee gt it and :thumbup: him. He tried to walk C.B. thru how'_  
_'2 give the prop pitch, but A.C dunt no how it the man who makes the message.'_  
_'He say how long been back? - Queen's Entourage'_

_'Wha... Oh. Huh. weird didn't even realise! So Bout... HUH 'A.C.' Like that.'_  
_'Shud call him that to his face. Nah, claims wuz down for minutes. probs not seen CCTV.'_  
_'OH. had gud sing sesh with Mel! Y U Not TELL ME she's SHIELD 2! - Killer Queen'_

_'U Do That. Film it. I Wanna see his reaction! And Mel's.'_  
_'He was skewered thru heart! HTF he srvved it!? U lrn, Let a girl no, k?'_  
_'Plz tell me u got Video! And You didn't ask. LMAO. - Ur good but no Freddie.'_

_'I No Im gud, but no 1 beats MR 'IWTBF' Mercury! Rmbr our dropsite.'_  
_'Will do ofcrs. Tell u l8r fll stry. and ouch.'_  
_'- U just Like Trolling. I LV IT! bt not wen u trl me. :'(.'_

A knock on the door and she looked up as A.C. opened the door. She quickly started to record, and greeted him. "Hey, A.C."

-

**2014**

She smiled softly at Coulson, stood by his side while the agents from the Hub departed.

"I heard you went to bat for me, pretty damn hard."

She nodded slowly, and watched as the ramp raised. "I... don't have many friends. I do my best to look after the ones I do have... so..." She turned as he indicated for them to go upstairs.

"And I thank you." She saw his wince as he took a step a bit too hard, but knew he wouldn't really appreciate her trying to help... on a small spiral staircase. "May tells me you were the one who found me?"

She nodded slowly, "Yeah, Hand tried to get me locked up in the freezer or whatever." as they moved past the cage and into the rear lounge area where he took a seat for the take-off, he gave her an amused look that told her he knew she was getting the name wrong on purpose. "Didn't want a 'Rising Tide Loose Cannon' loose on a SHIELD aircraft, even gave me a internet nanny bracelet." She rolled her eyes at that.

"Naturally you got rid of that." He noted, seeing nothing on her wrist. Speaking of one made both recall the last person he'd put one on - Miles Lydon, the Rising Tide hacker who had gone mercenary against the ideals of the group, and she'd helped them bring him in. It was only May saying she trusted Skye that had him decide not to put one on her - and he'd made sure she knew that, and could be properly thankful May. (Who settled for _several_ singing sessions, though not quite as loud as the first one).

"Yeah. I know you guys like to think your security is so great, but... whilst the hardware is pretty cool.... your software is a joke. An old payphone to a friend later and it was dead in under thirty seconds." Coulson looked shocked. She joked, "Yeah, who knew payphones were still a thing? Dont worry, it wasn't another member of the tide."

"That... doesn't help."

"Anyway yeah-" She blinked at the sensation of the aircraft ascending, and continued after a second, "got rid of it, got to a cyber cafe, and... two minutes later, walla." she snapped her fingers. "access to _sooo_ much info that Hand didn't have because she was all 'by the book' and 'we need warrants for that' and 'for some reason I'm forgetting I work for shield for whom there is no book and ignore warrants and legalities like that everyday and what little of a book there is I ignored last time I dealt with Team Bus'."

"Still ticked off about the mission to Georgia?"

"Yeup. ... So you were pretty out of it when I got to you... and.. well, I know you only woke up properly after the team got there, but... A.C., that... safehouse we were in?" He nodded slowly, "Coulson, it was three days ago when I got you out of that, Centipede horrorsville and to my safehouse. You _did_ wake up every so often, but apparently not remembered it."

"... You spent the past three days..."

"Looking after you, yeah. _That's_ how long it took Hand I wasn't... 'Bullshitting' about having rescued you and only because _they_ had used the _intel I fed them_ to raid that fake town and realised, _oh yeah, I'd already rescued you_." Skye rolled her eyes.

Coulson stared at her for a bit.

"... So what's the plan from now? Mission? float somewhere?"

"... Actually, I was thinking of the team getting some time off." Coulson replied softly, still watching her. "Two weeks..."

She nodded slowly... "You know, that... does sound good. Maybe... uhm."

She drifted off in thought for a few minutes, during which she pulled out her phone and sent a string of text messages to someone, before eventually, she came back to herself, noticed that Coulson wasn't sat with her, and found him in his office.

"Hey... so... you know how, uh... I said I didn't make a living hacking, but... uh..."

"You're a singer? Yes. I seem to recall someone stuttering about something like that." Coulson teased.

She scowled playfully for a moment, then sighed, "Well, it kinda got put on the back-burner with all the Rising Tide stuff, but... I've got a friend who has been _pestering me_ for years to open one of her concerts... and she's got a gig in like, six days..."

"And you want to go perform?"

She shrugged. "Kinda. More like... just let the team get to _relax_. and it's not a concert, like she's wanted me to play at, but for a fundraiser performance. She _was_ going to be doing it solo, but if I say yes..." She held up her phone, "then I'll open and do two sets, and even a... duet in the encore performance." She shuffled a little. "That's why she's wanted me to join her, it's a song I wrote for her but she insisted we do as a duet for her second album. Said she tried to sing it solo once, and it sucked... and it's her favourite out of all her songs."

"Skye... Get to the point."

"... I said I'll ask my current boss for the time off, and that I might bring some of my coworkers with. I can swing the five tickets for all of you."

Coulson just watched her fidget, before nodding. "Alright. It'll be interesting to see Fitzsimmons' reaction to your music. You still haven't told them?"

She grinned. "Wanna wait until I'm on stage for that."

He chuckled. "Alright, but I don't think I'll-"

"You like my music. And my friends'." She looked at his small cupboard door that hid his collection of vinyl, casettes and cd's. She was proud that her music had - since she told him anyway - made it's way into his collection. And he had sounded sincere when he told her he liked her music. "You're coming."

"Alright.. So where is it?"

"New York."

-

Skye spoke the words, made the motions, smiled the smiles. And inwardly, was laughing uproariously at the twin's reaction to seeing her on stage, _singing_, having been introduced as an actual, published singer-songwriter and friend of Kelly Aguilera, who was performing later on. Sure, She was more of a 'D-list' artist whilst Kelly had gone at points, full-on A-list.

The Amusement even kicked up a notch seeing (but not hearing) the twins realization that _May was singing along with her_. And _Dancing_. Not... not dancing like waltz, but the 'pop music is playing get on the dancefloor' dancing. Seeing _Coulson_ witness this side to May that, oh right, she forgot to tell him May was a fan of hers. The Shirt _should_ have told them so earlier in the day (the one she had once asked if May still had and hadn't gotten an answer to). And coulson _Really_ should have guessed this since May told him she trusted her, after not all-that-long of a time spent with the Team.

But the kicker was after her second song, and Kelly took the stage.

She went backstage, and found that the team had be escorted there as per their 'backstage access' badges she'd gotten for them.. then frowned. "No Ward?"

Of the group, it was only May who was able to respond. "He said he didn't have much interest in music and had a lot of reading to do."

"Who's Ward?" A voice spoke up, and Skye gave the woman who approached a big hug. "Missed you. And Who's Ward?"

They pulled back to see the team - Coulson and Fitzsimmons, no Ward, and May already knew - gaping fish-mouthed at seeing Skye and _Natasha Romanoff_ clearly being friends. "Nat... You know Mel and A.C." May nodded, and Coulson just blinked at her... "But these two are Leopold Fitz and Jemma Simmons, the Science Twins. Guys, this is Natasha Romanoff. Agent of Shield, but Also my B.F.F."

It was amusing seeing their reactions.

"... BFF?" Coulson asked.

"Of twelve years." Natasha replied, then held out a hand and Skye noticed then a package in it. "Happy Twelve-year BFF Anniversary."

Skye blinked, looked up, smiled and accepted the gift with a hug, "Thank you. Sorry I don't have yours on me, it's on the plane."

".... twelve years?"

May snorted. "You think that's weird, you should see who her brother is."

"... Barton. C.B. for Clint." Coulson put the dots together...

Skye, Nat and May laughed. Skye replied, "Actually, I didn't even notice the initials matched his name. they're my stage-name's initials... and why SHIELD _still doesn't know_."

"Chloe, You're up in ten minutes" spoke a stage-hand, and she nodded, "Alright.. Coulson, Fitzsimmons, I'm sorry but you're gonna have to wait with the crowd for my next performance, gotta change. Nat... May... help? please?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a soft spot for "skye knew _ of the avengers" fics, obviously. was just gonna be Nat, but then Clint wanted in because I put 'C.B.' as her stage name (for chloe bennett) and realised who else had those initials.


	12. As many lives as a Time Lord...

"I'm not a Time Lord."

Jemma snorted. "Please, you've travelled in time, you've _died_ , more than once... and you're, generally, involved in beating the bad guys in a key role, if not the one to do it."

"No, I'm... not..."

"Centipede? Who was it who tracked down Coulson? Who was it who figured it out about the Clairvoyant? Who was the target of the bad guys sooo many times? The one with a mysterious background connected to aliens? Hell, you and the doctor _both_ have the Alias, 'Destroyer of Worlds'-"

"Jemma!"

"Well, you do." Jemma sighed. "Sure, the, the comparison doesn't _really_ match properly, but enough of it fits! I mean, I haven't died so you can't say I've regenerated-" At Daisy's open mouth, she continued over the partial interruption, "And the, the framework version of me wasn't me, just... alternate, digital, version."

Fitz snorted. "Don't try to dissuade her Daisy, Given what we're doing here, I can see her point. You're crossing your own time-stream," He grinned at Jemma, who playfully scowled, "Dont' want time monsters coming after you for altering a fixed point."

Daisy looked out from the cockpit of the Zephyr.

The three were alone, no Mack, no Yoyo, no May. And the rest...

They were in the past. Their past. With the Zephyr currently under cloak...

"Somewhere down there, there's a twenty-five year old version of myself,... currently thinking she's twenty-four." Daisy sighed.

Jemma blinked at a computer display. "Correction... eleven thinking she's ten."

Daisy stared for half a second, then moved to the back of the cockpit/command centre.

"Daisy, don't!"

"... You... I... I can't do _nothing_! and we're already..."

Fitz held his wife back, giving Daisy the chance to leave. "Let her go."

"But... Fixed points! and... And..."

He rolled his eyes. "Daisy told me more about her life in the system than she told you, Jemma." She blinked at that, though not looking surprised. "And honestly, if you hadn't reacted like that I'd be beside her right now... as would you be because of course you'd have followed us _both_."

They looked back out of the cockpit at the view of the planet Earth below, a view momentarily blocked by the departing Quinjet that shimmered out of view as Daisy deployed it's own cloak.

Down on the planet, celebrations for christmas, 1999 were already under way at different stages depending on the timezones.

"Do you think we should tell her it's actually _christmas day_ down there?"

Jemma blinked. "Eve."

"Only in the US."

"..."

Fitz moved to the comms station when the call came in anyway. "uh... guy's? I don't know where I am. I mean, my... younger self. Sort of. What's the date?"

-

**Battle of New** York

Fitz stared as the battle raged on, information displayed in the command centres' displays with the intercepted radio on the speakers.

Jemma was sat in the pilot's chair, headset on as she guided the plane towards new york, coming in low with weapons hot and on automatic tracking.

"Daisy, where are the Avengers?!"

Over his own headset, he heard the reply, "We're about half an hour out."

A pause. "We?" Jemma asked.

Then an excited squeel came from the other person on the channel. "You mean you're with them?"

Fitz sighed slightly as he looked at the feed from the ground. They, himself, his wife and Daisy had all forgotten the details about the battle of new york, like the exact day, so naturally Skye was there to call in the 'crazy hole in the sky'.

It wasn't long before, "Fitz! We're two minutes out!" Jemma called, and he moved over to the main tactical station to take partial control, to mark targets for the tracking turrets, whilst the forward-arc gimbals and missile launchers were tied to the cockpit.

-

Daisy looked back at the two agents and Captain America. "Five minutes out. LZ is hot, going to have to do a paradrop! Monkey, take control." She stood up to the shock of the three, whilst the plane continued to fly itself. "Drop us off at the LZ, then link with the Zephyr for Air Support."

A familiar sound to the two agents beeped from the console, acknowledging the order. The rear door dropped and the four moved to the back.

"You're coming with us?" the archer, Clint Barton, spoke up. "Wheres your parachute? It's too hot for-"

She just winked, and astride with the Cap, ran out the door without a parachute shouting, "I'll catch you!"

Which, she did, just like she'd once caught Rosalind Price, the once head of the ATCU that in this timeline hopefully wont come to be. Difference though, she knew she could do it, and did it whilst catching herself.

The fight was crazy from there until Iron Man and Hulk rocked up.

Then came the Big Whale of a chitauri space creature thing, and she stopped Bruce, smiling and saying, "A girl needs to let loose at some point..." Then with a grin, turning to face the incoming creature, spoke, "Daisy... SMAAASH!" and jumped at the creature and gave it the impact of a 9.0 to its nose.

The entire team got covered in the weird guts, but she was grinning like mad as she returned to the group, who looked at her like she was crazy (probably).

"Lady Daisy, Was there really a need for that?"

She looked at Thor, winked and said, "Actually, yes. I have give my powers an outlet every so often, and I had been saving up for something else, but... well. Eh. That I can do any time, really." He just laughed, and she turned to the group. "Introduction later. Loki in your suite?" She asked of Iron Man, who nodded... "Cool. I call dibs."

"You can't."

"Yes I can. Dibs. See?" Then she reached out with a hand and blew apart a passing glider. "Fight now. Talk later..." And then she flew off to their shock.

"Who the hell is that?"

Skye walked up with a smile, and the others did a double take at seeing a much younger version... carrying a chitauri staff. "That's my half-alien mom. She's pretty kick ass, don'tcha think?"

"Indeed Lady Skye." Thor spoke. It wasn't at that point, lost on the team that Thor knew _both_ of their names without being introduced. "As your mother said... fight now" He blasted some gliders, "Talk later."

-

In the aftermath, the team were invited aboard the Zephyr... And Tony Stark was in Gaga-land over the toys.

"Artificial gravity? Faster than Light Travel? And..."

Fitz guided him off to talk Engineering!Science!.

Bruce spoke up, "How are you able to..." to Daisy

Jemma spoke up after a nod from Daisy, "I can answer that, Doctor Banner..."

Leaving Daisy, Skye and Thor in front of Steve, Natasha and Clint.

Skye shrugged at Clint's look, and said, "Step up from the Orphanage, huh?"

He grunted, and she pulled him to a nearby coach to watch the conversation between the others.

Daisy shrugged to Natasha. "Clint aged out a few years after Skye was dropped off there by a SHIELD agent. I only rescued her from their clutches after... well." She coughed. "That was one christmas present she says we can't beat."

Natasha nodded a little.

Steve asked, "How do you know them, Thor?"

"I have had occasional dealings with Midgardians, prior to my, uh, exile to Midgard." The others had gotten that story, so understood he meant prior to Puente Antiguo. Then he and Natasha noticed he said 'Midguardians'. Thor continued, "I'll be interested to know if Lady Daisy can still wield Mjolnir, given that my father only gave it the restriction of worthiness during my exile..."

Daisy picked it up from where Thor had gently placed it, flipped it end over end and caught the handle, and passed it back with a smile, and explained to the others, "Without that, it was actually more about brute strength, or... as I do it, _convincing the hammer to let me wield it without that strength_. Physical strength, anyway."

"It takes an exceedingly strong mind to wield and guide Mjolnir."

"Without Odin's test, most humans can't." Daisy added.

"I could!" Skye piped up with a grin, and laughed at Clint's face.

"Care to test your worthiness now, Lady Skye?"

"Please... don't." Daisy mocking begged, "And I thought she was bad after Mjolnir's last stay during the Runereader situation."

Thor shuddered. "Agreed."

Skye booed, "You suck!" and threw popcorn at them.

-

Phil looked around his new plane with a smile.

Sure it was, weird how Fury had decided he was too much of a weird-magnet and gave him a plane and a team, even convinced him to ask May to be his pilot, but honestly, getting to do the more normal missions was a god-send after all the work dealing with the Avengers, putting up with Stark, investigating the mystery agent who helped them get to new york, putting up with Stark, investigating where the Quinjet with a SHIELD IFF that _hadn't actually been assigned to a quinjet_ had come from... Putting up with Stark.

But just because most of that involved lots of... weirdness... didn't mean it was because he was involved.

He distinctly recalls telling Fury that Stark became Iron Man _before_ he was involved. He was in Puente Antiguo _because_ that's where the hammer fell and he was given the mission. He had no connection to Banner, so far as he currently knew, and the weirdness with the Captain didn't end up involving him, so he really doesn't know where this misconception that he was a weirdness magnet came from.

He looked between May, Fitzsimmons (whom he was still trying to work out who was Fitz and who was Simmons), and their teams' specialist, "Our first mission is to Los Angeles. thirty-eight hours ago, someone hacked into our network and released information onto the internet. _Twenty_ hours ago, this video was upload to youtube which carries-"

-

He looked at the 'super soldier' in the cage, and wondered, maybe _just possibly a little bit he could have some degree fraction of a percent something that kind of could sort of be called a weirdness magnet_.

Then he looked at the young hacker he'd picked up, who had all kinds of intel to drop on he and his teams' head. It didn't go unnoticed that she wasn't surprised he turned up. Or was easy to track.

Or that she had no information on the network about her at all, like she was a ghost.

whilst she seemed to know a little about their team.

"So this is the hacker." Their specialist spoke, having not met the girl until now, as she had been chasing after the soldier in their lockup, who... really didn't actually look like a super soldier. Or all that well, actually.

"Sup, Itsy Bitsy Spider." The hacker greeted with a smile... and... yeap, she looked halfway to fangirling over the Avenger he'd talked into joining the team. (He was totally going to blame any recurrance of weirdness on her)

Natasha froze for a second, and he was suddenly worried of having to clean up a dead body, except she smiled and relaxed in a way he only saw around Clint. "Broke into any secure systems yet?"

"SHIELD? hence why I'm here?"

Natasha looked at her for a second. "Are you serious?"

"Actually, she is." He spoke up. "It was in the b-"

"I said _secure_ systems." Natasha continued, and he wondered what that implied.

"... Oh right. No. The NSA still haven't fixed the holes I showed them from last month." Skye shrugged, and he found _that_ reply _really_ interesting, in that he didn't pick up any hint of deceit. And that it meant even Natasha didn't consider SHIELD's systems _secure_.

"Well that's... disappointing. What about the KGB? You said theirs was a challenge two months ago."

"... what?"

"Ha, I said _the rising tide_ found their systems a challenge. I didn't say anything about _me_ hacking them."

"... Ugh. Let me guess, you already had hacked them when I asked."

"... What?" He repeated.

-

Grant Ward Saluted to his CO, who returned the salute, and ordered, "At Ease, Captain. How's she fly?"

He put a hand on his F-22 that he'd just disembarked from, sat in its parked position at the airfield at Edwards AFB. Unlike most, this one had seen modifications by Stark Industries upgrading the performance of the engines, and the cockpit was even better sealed with upgraded life support systems.

"Like a dream. I think I can go for the SR-71 altitude record, sir." He looked at the hull, "Four flights and she doesn't even leak down on the ground like the Blackbird did... It's incredible."

Then his Co caught sight of his callsign. "T-1000?"

"... Don't ask me, sir. Pilots don't choose their callsigns..."

"Right. Well, not here about that. They've set a trial date, and the lead prosecutor has asked you to be a key witness. If youre..."

"I'm sure, sir."

"Right. Well, you're one of my best pilots, W... Grant. I'd hate to loose you for the duration, but... if this puts your demons to rest..."

Grant nodded. No one who knew him called him Ward. "Thank you sir."

"And god bless whoever it was who gathered that evidence..."

"Amen to that sir." He agreed, silently thanking whoever it was that showed, _no he was nowhere near his home_ when it was set on fire. And since it was his _family_ who had named him the arsonist, whilst the evidence indicated that _his brother_ had prior to the fire, travelled all the way up to the military school and then called the hour he'd taken an authorised vacation, and _altered the records_ to indicate he'd gone AWOL... And, on top of that, the evidence included where his vacation was to, Despite the fact that a) he actually _was_ guilty of setting that fire and b) pleaded guilty before it got to trial...

Well. Someone was looking out for him. That someone had, when he was set free from Juvie with a hefty cashiers check, sent a letter saying that they were doing their best to investigate his family, so if he had any leads to them follow, there was a 'dead drop' so he could get the info to his anonymous benefactor.

The fact it took this long to go to trial (finished military school, college, the air force academy, flight school and two years as an F-22 pilot before becoming a test pilot for the F-22D-High-Altitude program)... well, it was, a pretty damn big case beyond the child abuse it was initially about.

-

In space, Daisy looked over the verdict. It actually hadn't involved much lying for the entire 'ward' issue. Fact was, he hadn't gone AWOL, as it was very much authorised leave. That his brother had in fact altered the records _was actually true_. She'd had a long time to think over Ward's history and how he... how he became the nut that thought rebuilding Hydra the way he tried was a good idea. How he thought they could be together after betraying the team.

And a little bit of her still loved him. a little bit.

That was why she'd looked into it not long after picking up Skye. It... actually hadn't taken much to find enough evidence that supported so much of what Ward _had_ told her before Hydra's Reveal. From there... aside from one letter that he'd taken the offer on to pass information just the once, she'd not interfered in his life after getting him out of Juvie. The rest... proving that he was, in this form without Garret's influence, a good man... it made her heart clench.

Though he was still the tightly-controlled T-1000 based on her observations over the years. (Okay, _aside_ from making sure that became his callsign, she hadn't interfered.)

That's why their other interference - like how her presence meant that though Loki escaped, he didn't go through Coulson to do it - resulted in Natasha being the team's Specialist, though the entire makeup was, this time, not about needing a team that could 'rebuild, reprogram and observe him; and if necessary take him out'.

Skye... she let her go repeat that part of her own life, though it would be _vastly_ different.

And idly, she wondered if Skye wouldn't develop a crush on the team's specialist anyway, though in her case in this timeline, that was Natasha Freaking Romanoff.

... Okay she was a little jealous that skye got to get close to and maybe be friends with the Black Widow...

And maybe Sam's comments are STILL plaguing her thoughts when it comes to the spy. She grumbled as she once more swore revenge on the Koenig brother. And swore NEVER to say anything about it to Skye.

...

'_If Skye ends up with Natasha, then it happens and I'll just have to keep my je... I'm not Jealous. Nope. No-no-no-no._'

...

'_Oh I'm useless._'

"GRAH!" she swore into a pillow in her bunk on the Zephyr later that night after an... interesting text from Skye.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so the Ward bit came out of left field, but I thought, 'why not', after all there's a big segment that's all for Ward in the fandom. Not personally part of that.
> 
> But he's a Captain in the USAF, flying F-22's (we know in SHIELD he can at least fly the Bus, if not a qualified pilot of it. Don't recall but did the show ever indicate he was a *qualified* pilot, not just obviously able to fly the Bus and set the autopilot?)


	13. Being Capable.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And now, from Skye's Perspective. Uh, Young-Skye, I mean (variation of sorts for the Daisy-raised-Skye idea)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lots of Avengers (2012) in here.

**A Long Time Ago at an Orphanage Far Far Aw... No this isn't Star Wars Sorry got mixed up there a second...**

* * *

She was sat in the chair, swinging her legs back and forth waiting to be called into the mother superiors' office.

"Back Again, Mary?" one of her favourite nuns asked, and she shrugged.

"I didn't do nuffin." She replied, "Probably another foster home."

It was a familiar story by now. Years of it had completely worn down her hope of ever being adopted.

The door opened, and the severe-looking woman that ran the place bid her to enter without a word, and she shuffled off the chair and in.

Inside, she found that a woman with black hair was sat in a 'prim' position... the kind that kids here only did when they _had_ to speak (listen) to the Mother Superior for whatever reason but would rather be anywhere _but_ in this office.

"Take a Seat, Mary."

She sighed and half-climbed into the chair. Half-climbed, because she was still so short, and not her fault the chairs seemed to have been made for 7-foot tall adults.

The woman looked at her once she settled in the same 'upright prim and proper' pose instead of the slouch she wanted to relax into.

"This is Miss Cale." The woman gave a short nod in greeting, with a hint of a smile. "Miss Cale, this is Mary Sue Poots..." The Mother Superior paused, looking between them with a small frown for a moment, before seeming to shake off a thought and spoke up, "Mary, Miss Cale is here to adopt you."

She blinked. "You mean Foster me?"

"No, my child. I spoke correctly."

-

She was numb, as she sat in the plane that Miss Cale had took them to. 'Mary Sue Cale' She tried out in her thoughts, and winced.

"You okay, Skye?"

"m'fine." She muttered, as she mulled over everything she'd heard.

Then...

"How'dyou know I prefer Skye?"

Miss Cale paused, then shrugged. "In case your wondering, The first name I put on the paperwork was 'Richters'." Then the woman went into the cockpit, and she finally noticed from that that they were in no plane she'd seen before. Inside or out.

Inside it rather looked like the cargo bays of military planes... and the cockpit was visible at the front.

Then she thought over the name. 'Richters Cale'. ... 'Richter Scale. wut?' "That... Can't be real." she muttered, and looked around her, and noticed that, yeah, there were bags and boxes and a rack of _weapons_.

"A Friend gave me the nickname Tremors. Remember the part about how you were moved about to protect you? Think of how many foster homes you've already been to that were bad, and how many more you could have gone through before aging out and you'll know why I picked you up."

... It made sense in that regard. She'd been given a rather tough story to hear about her parents being attacked by bad guys and she was caught in the middle, and because the good guys who came to help didn't know she even existed, and the bad guys were still out there...

"What's your real name? Are you a Spy?" The woman looked asian (like herself), and added, "A Ninja?"

"Skye, Yes, and Yes." She felt the plane take off, but it felt, weird. The woman continued speaking. "I may have left out how I know all this, Mini-me. For one, I travelled through time..."

... "YOU'RE ME FROM THE FUTURE?!"

The woman laughed as another voice spoke up, "Damn, Skye."

"Thanks, Mini-me, a friend of... ours... owes us fifty bucks."

-

**2006**

"Hello, Welcome to Stark Industries." The woman in front of her greeted with a smile and hand held out to shake. Skye took it and smiled in return. "I'm Pepper Potts, and you must be Skye Cale. I know Tony said you were young, but didn't think he meant barely out of high school. You must have really impressed him."

She shrugged. "I think it's more than he, what, spends more time on the hardware engineering side than software, so his skills with cyber security barely gets upgraded to modern standards before he's moved on again?" Pepper nodded in understanding. "Where-as, the firewall is where I live, and... uh..."

Pepper chuckled. "I understand. This way, I'll show you to your office."

"... Office? Alr.. I thought this was an in... I mean.. what?"

Her life was surreal, and even as shocked as she was, it was half an act. It couldn't beat out finding out about her time-travelling older self and living on a spaceship. But she knew without that, and still having done this (though without that, she wouldn't _be here anyway,_) she would have been surprised to be taken without having to do a job interview.

-

**2010**

Tears poured freely as she grasped at the woman she'd actually begun to call mom a long time ago, but only admitted it to herself recently. Her hands on the woman's temples, she whispered and slowly led the woman through her PTSD episode, ignoring the shaking in the room.

The woman, her 'mom'... was her older self. She'd learned a long time ago that so much of her life was being 'fixed' by the woman to be as happy as possible, because her mom's go through wasn't. There were also hints of good things that were getting 'butterflied' out of her own go through, but had long accepted that her mom had good reason for getting rid of both. And whilst the woman went by the name 'Daisy', (The Richters Cale was a joke that just wouldn't die) she herself stuck by 'Skye', because she honestly didn't want to get into the mass that was 'Daisy Johnson, daughter of Jaiying'. And yes, she'd finally learned the truth a few years ago, and wished she hadn't.

The truth would set you free? Not really. There was a time she resented all the manipulations, but here, The Truth made her see how much of a mess her 'mom' was mentally. but it didnt' set them 'free'.

And she didnt' want to be free of Daisy's reach.

Call it dependancy. Call it love. Call it whatever.

Skye knew that Daisy needed her, and she figured that she needed Daisy just as much and that was fine.

The weirdness factor had long been drowned out by other things, like the intergalactic trips they took every so often, some of which were to an Alien Psychologist who had taught her some tricks for safely getting Daisy through her PTSD attacks without chewing the scenery.

Though it did result in her gaining superpowers that were _not_ the same as Daisy's, and also the revelation that Skye's Genetic code.. well... Skye wasn't an Inhuman. She didn't have _any_ Kree DNA. That Daisy _did_ have that DNA, along with the extra mutations from the Terrigenesis... But she also wasn't technically 'Inhuman', because the Kree DNA that was infused into humans to create these Inhumans... not one part of that set was in Daisy's genetic code. And there were traces of her DNA from Pre-GH-325, Post-GH-325 but pre-Terrigenesis as well as the bulk being post-transformation for comparison. Daisy, before Terrigenesis, had Kree DNA ... from the GH-325 drug used to save her life. Before that drug? The traces of her pre-325 genetic code matched Skye's completely, so there was no doubt in either mind about Skye and Daisy being 'Temporal Clones' of sorts. But Daisy's 'active' genetic code had only a fifty-percent similarity to Skye's.

No. Skye's superpowers - that, of all things, _came from the code that was progressively lost during Daisy's two transformations_ \- was, Empathy, enhanced intelligence, the ability for non-linear analysis ( so she doesn't need to work a problem, a to b to c to d etcetera) but then that one had been a given for them both, being able to see things from minimal clues others hadn't had been mentioned by others too often not to go unnoticed by either.

The empathy wasn't one-way, hence this.

It wasn't _quite_ a mind-meld, Vulcan style... but near enough for the PTSD attacks.

Also, the immunity to _Daisy_'s super-shaker power was a bonus. Daisy had actually laughed about that, when the psychologist made sure to dose them both with a serum to give them both the immunity.

Skye came to herself not long after the attack ended, and just cuddled to her mom, no matter that the attack came when Daisy was visiting her at work in Stark Industries' New York office, and had seen something in the security footage.

"So...."

"Coulson."

"... Ah."

She looked at the CCTV and watched the SHIELD agent speak to Pepper shortly, wondering what it was about.

A knock on the door, and both looked up to see a new girl come in. "Hi, I'm supposed to get my badge here?"

Daisy nodded to Skye, and spoke, "I'll see you later, Kiddo. Things to do." She stood and left, with a short, "Miss Rushman" to the woman at the door as she passed.

'Miss Rushman' frowned for a moment as Daisy left, then looked to Skye.

"Hi. I'll be with you in a moment," and proceeded to look up information on the server for this, Miss Rushman, wondering how it was SHIELD just managed to plant Natasha Romanoff's cover identity on the system without the alarms notifying her of the hack. Shortly after, she handed a badge, and just as the agent-in-disguise moved to pull away, Skye kept hold, and pulled her in with surprising force to the Agent. "Tony' isn't the idiot Fury think's he is. Between his hyper-senses and that he's on the autism scale... just keep those in mind when you interact with him. If you hurt him, Government agent or not, I _will_ hurt you."

"... Understood." The woman spoke simply as she backed away with a surprised look on her face.

"And tell Fury... if he keeps holding the Idiot Ball, people might stop taking him seriously."

Skye just smiled as the door shut at her behest at that, almost on the agent's face.

-

Skye watched with a smile on her face as Daisy drank coffee at the same table as 'Miss Rushman' in the Stark Industries cafeteria.

It was obvious that her mom had a bit of a crush that kept her blind to some things, like what had been implied from what Daisy told her about in the lead up to the 'avengers initiative' being needed. And she knew her mom was _well_ aware of the crush, and that there had been something to instigate it, to push her thoughts in that direction, as every so often she'd heard her mom mutter 'damn it Koenig', and got enough to know whatever it was that happened, it involved a guy called Sam Koenig.

Funnier still... it hadn't been her _mom_ to sit at the table with the spy-in-disguise, but the Spy had sat at the table Daisy was at.

She sent a quick text to the agent's phone, knowing she'd be earning points for having gotten the number that _wasn't_ in any file (the whole point of it being a burner phone). '_you hurt my mom, I'll post pictures of you in... compromising positions with... things.... all over SHIELD's network. Or worse. depends on how badly you hurt her, but you get the point._'

'_noted'_ was all that she got back...

Then just as the agent stood up, phone in hand, she received another text. _'... Ur mom asked me out. on a Date... how do I say no *without* hurting her?'_

_'Simple, three letters... first is Y, last is S, and you know the middle.'_

_'That's not a No.'_

_'Exactly. ;) never know, you might have fun... Might even dislodge the stick SHIELD has tried shoving up your ass... and put something else there...'_

_'*scowl*'_

Skye chuckled as her mom came over giddy.

"I have a date."

She whistled, "And with the Black Widow, too." She winked. "I'm jealous." _'not_'.

Honestly, she wasn't surprised her 'mom' was interested in women now. Even the little attempts to date that Skye had pushed her into had crashed and burned. Even though neither were quite sure how it was that Skye was able to swing her mom a date with _Thor_ in the first place, that one ended with a _spectacular_ battle on Vanaheim and Thor decrying that it was a sign from the fates (and pointedly not saying how glad they both were the attack interrupted their awkward-as-hell date.)

Personally, she thought her mom _may_ have been sabotaging them a little as it was... But the look on her face said that she wouldn't be doing so when it came to dating the SHIELD Agent.

It did beg the question though of who she'd date herself. she'd been warned off from Miles long before he'd introduced himself at a party trying to get her to join the Rising Tide, which Daisy was kind of glad she was avoiding. She just knew it wasn't gonna be a girl.

-

**2012**

She smiled widely as she entered the gym. He was sat on a bench, staring at a pile.

"Skye." He greeted with a smile, before frowning back at the pile.

"Steve" she returned, as she pointedly ignored the pile of trashed punching bags he was staring at. The lack of any in useable condition told her what the answer would be before she asked... "You Busy?"

"Not really."

"... Want another lesson?"

Steve shrugged. "Why not."

Which was how Fury found him two hours later, not in the Gym like expected, though there had been a delivery of bags stacked at the front of the gym, but in the attached office, slowly typing away at a computer while some asian brunette talked computers at half a mile a minute.

"Director." Steve spoke flatly when Skye's prattle ended upon noticing the directors' presence.

"Captain." The man glanced her way, and she just raised an eyebrow at him, before standing up fully, and saying a quiet 'bye' with a kiss on the cheek. "New Girlfriend?"

Skye didn't truly leave, just stayed outside the door knowing that Fury knew she hadn't left, and was grinning knowing that Steve was a bright-red tomato right now. "N.. no... just a friend. Teaching me..."

"bringing you up to speed?"

"... kind of? Why are you here, get me out in the world? I don't really need help with that."

Skye almost laughed at his clear tone meaning he meant to add '_from you'_.

"Trying to save it."

Her smile dropped, and gave Fury a raised eyebrow from her visible position. He closed the door on her.

"Threat level?" He asked simply.

"Ever heard of Loki?"

She winced.

-

Skye leant against the bulkhead, looking into the cockpit out of the window at the atlantic ocean they were flying over.

She listened as Coulson fanboyed all over Captain America, and she just found it hilarious...

Though, admittedly her mom had said that at this point in _her_ life, she'd not met aliens or superheroes yet and would have reacted the same. (That she had even Cosplayed outside Stark Tower!).

As it was, She worked _for_ Iron Man, was taught by _Banner_ when she attended Culver University, before she got the job at Stark Industries. She'd met _Thor_ quite some time ago, and there were a few other 'avengers' who weren't going to approach Earth any time soon she'd known. A guy who was Earth's first (publicly known) superhero that had been lost in ice for decades... didn't actually rate all that high. On the Fangirl-over-it meter, anyway.

"And this Doctor Banner... He was trying to unlock Erskine's Serum formula?"

"A lot of people were. Some with more success than others."

"Let me guess, he tested it on himself."

Skye did her best not to freeze as Coulson replied, "No, actually. While he was planning to, someone entered his lab and destroyed it. SHIELD tried to find out who did it, but the security footage had been erased. After that, he left the game, citing it as a dead-end anyway, but kept his research into Gamma Radiation up, which is why we've called him in. He's like a Stephen Hawking... uh... really smart person."

Skye snorted, even as she flexed a hand that momentarily turned green.

According to her mom, and the files on the Zephyr, Banner never understood what Hulk truly was. And as a result, that was pretty much an, emotionally-abusive relationship that ended with Bruce 'killing' Hulk in the merge, his mind, Hulk's body (if a bit smaller).

She had intended to talk him around, and had gone in the night Bruce went to run the experiment on himself... and found he wasn't there, and... tripped. He'd actually been reading some of the coursework she'd submitted, too engrossed in it to realise what time it was, and so when he came in, he'd found her unconscious.

It had actually been why Daisy initially sought out an alien Psychologist, so to their luck, they found a telepath who saw who had the bigger issues.

The funny guy said that despite the green, she was _way_ stronger emotionally than physically, which was kind of a joke considering all the damage her mom suffered... and kind of not, because it didn't break her. Said that Daisy was like a sword someone made by accident by people trying to _destroy_ it. Every strike did indeed do damage, but it didn't destroy it, instead saw new uses, or even, as the metaphorical forge, made her stronger in some way.

Whereas with Skye... at her _own_ behest than at her mom's, she was put into the 'forge' intentionally. (Minus the fact she didn't even intend to become She-Hulk!) Kind of. Welll, Mentally, not physically. And after that was how she got her actual empathy powers that could help mentally damaged people like her mom.

At the same time, she became more 'in-tune' with her inner Hulk, or 'She-Hulk'. Her Alternate self wasn't powered by "rage" alone. All that excess emotions she 'soaked' up had to go somewhere, and the hulking out was her body physically manifesting it or some-such.

Her She-Hulk was _literally_ stronger around people who were emotionally overloaded, regardless of the emotion. She preferred happy, but that was a rarity.

Right now, she felt the tension on the plane from Steve, the joy at meeting Steve from Agent Coulson, and the amusement of the pilot and copilot.

After thoroughly embarrassing himself, including about having 'design input' on a uniform, he turned to her.

Steve Introduced them. "Agent Coulson, this is Skye Cale."

She shook his hand, and smiled. "It'll be good to see Br... Doctor Banner Again." At their looks, she shrugged, "I attended Culver."

Steve continued, "She's good with computers..."

"Why'd you bring her on?"

He paused, as if not wanting to repeat himself, so Skye just laughed and answered for the guy, "I was good enough that I graduated from Culver at Eighteen, and was snapped up by Stark Industries. And I was really _annoyed_ when I noticed that a SHIELD agent had slipped in, through Stanes' old security net I'd yet to fully purge from Stark Industries, oh... two years ago. Romanoff didn't tell you she got ID'd as an agent less than five minutes into her job?"

"... No. Five minutes?" He was confused, "She was undercover for around half a year before the..."

"Before Vanko's little demonstration? I helped her hack Rhodey's suit to give him control back."

Steve inserted, "That's why I invited her along."

"Really?" Skye asked amused, "I thought you invited me to annoy Fury?"

He paused, "That too."

"Troll." She commented with a grin, and turned back to looking out of the cockpit window, seeing a small dot that slowly resolved into the Helicarrier.

-

Natasha greeted Coulson, got the intro to steve, then froze at seeing her.

"Natasha." Skye greeted with a smile, and did a little 'fist bump' with the agent, who awkwardly returned it with a nod.

"... Phil, they need you on the bridge, they're starting the face-trace."

Coulson disappeared, and she took a back seat to watching the two superpowered people interact, walking over to Dr Banner. (No matter what they said, she was _sure_ that Natasha was enhanced.)

"There was quite the Buzz around here, finding you in the ice. I thought Coulson was gonna swoon. Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?"

"Trading Cards?"

"They're vintage. He's very proud."

Steve spotted Bruce. "Dr. Banner?"

Bruce spun around, and Skye was holding in giggles at his whole 'clumsy geek' routine. Even without the Hulk as a reason for, a lot, he was quite the actor. Probably because of General Ross. "Uh yeah, hi." Bruce looked at Natasha, who introduced herself.

"Agent Romanoff."

He then looked at her, and she darted forward to hug her former teacher, who was... confused somewhat and _not_ happy at her being here. "Skye, what are you doing here?"

"Trying to find Loki. You?"

"Uh-"

Steve spoke up. "Word is you can find the cube?"

"That the only thing you heard?"

Skye snorted. Word in certain circles she'd seen had that Ross thought he'd sabotaged himself, and wasn't trustworthy, bla bla usual Ross' BS. Steve understood without prompt, "Only word I care about."

-

On the Bridge, Skye noticed when Fury spotted her, the slight widening of the eye without surprise. Coulson had probably told him she was here.

He greeted Dr. Banner first, though after five bucks got passed to him from Steve without a word. Probably a bet, she figured.

"Thanks for asking nicely." Bruce commented, pulling her attention from some of the people in the room. "So uh, how long am I staying?"

"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the wind, if that's what you want."

"Where are you with that?" He asked, and Fury pointed to Coulson.

Skye moved over to a console to look at the information, and listened with half an ear.

"We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cellphones, Laptops. If it's connected to the internet, it's eyes and ears for us."

"You said Face-trace." Skye spoke up to Natasha, then looked at Coulson. "If you're looking for Loki and Barton, it won't work." She looked at Natasha. "The brief said Barton was mind-controlled?"

She nodded in realization. "He'll be advising Loki in how to avoid detection unless and until he wants to be found."

Fury and Coulson sighed at that. Fury spoke up, "Well, keep on it."

Skye added, "Besides, That's not what Doctor Banner asked... you answered for Loki or Barton. He was talking the cube, right?"

Banner nodded, "How many spectrometers do you have access to?"

Skye phased the talk out, but was quickly pulled in when Fury spoke, "I assume you'd like Miss Cale as your assistant? Agent Romanoff, show Doctor Banner and Miss Cale to their lab."

She shook her head, knowing Bruce hadn't answered. Last time she'd been his assistant, his work got destroyed, and he didn't seem keen on it happening again, from the look on his face. "I'll stay up here and help the face-trace, if you don't mind. I know some tricks to boost your face-trace algorithm throughput."

-

She was face-palming as she sat across from Loki, who kept shooting her unreadable looks, but otherwise doing his best to ignore everything.

She was face-palming at all the puns Tony was pulling - still in his iron man armor.

Then the lightning started, and she stood and faced the back.

"What, are you afraid of a little lightning?"

"It's what follows I'm not overly fond of." Loki replied, and she almost smiled, but this was a sibling reunion she knew... originally... hadn't gone that well. For The others, anyway.

"What are you doing, Skye?" This came from Tony, noticing what she was doing, only to be interrupted by the loud thud and bucking of the plane from Thor landing on the Quinjet's dorsal.

"Open the hatch, and don't say a word." She spoke with command.

The rear hatch lowered, and Thor entered... and she stood in front of him with a hand up... and called out, "HOLD, ODINSON."

She wasn't sure who had the funniest reaction, given that a) she just said it in asgardian, though with b) she was only facing Thor, she couldn't tell what was going on with the others anyway.

"Lady Skye..." He spoke, pointing at Loki with his hammer. She, felt, the emotional response to that from Loki even as Thor continued, "I must take him back to Asgard..." He took a step forward, and she stopped him by simply holding onto the handle of Mjolnir, and lowering the hammer. Gripping it as he was, his hand followed, and his face showed his shock... to her confusion, since the last few times they'd met, she had actually done more than just touch it. Once, used it to use the lightning as a power source for some alien machinery, other times often just moving it out of the way of doors and the like, as Thor wasn't careful with putting it away, given he could call it to himself.

"Things are afoot here, Thor. You're here for your Brother. But we picked him up because of what he was doing." She sighed, and moved her hand along Mjolnir's handle just enough for skin contact with thor, and, 'sent' a pulse of emotions. "Stay, work with us..."

Thor slowly nodded. "Fine, I shall." He answered, now speaking English. Though the All-speak made it hard for anyone who understood him in either asgardian or english to even realise that he had switched. The All-speak was just... a cheat for the world, in her view. _Thor_ didn't speak english natively. And whilst Skye, her mom, and several others had over the years learned the asgardian language, the All-speak just, somehow, made it so that you couldn't 'hear' the switch. Only if he had learned the language himself would he be able to speak without the All-speak, and switch between English and Asgardian and it be actively noticeable. As it was, his english _was_ through the allspeak.

Though it also had the weird thing of making him look like he was speaking in english too, rather than doing that funny 'words dont match mouth movements' that were in lots of old-timey Imported martial arts movies with English dubs.

She pointed him to the seat she had taken before, and he sat, staring at his brother whilst the rear hatch closed, and she turned to see the others staring at her. Steve, Tony, Natasha. Even the pilot was turned to look at them.

"What?"

"... You know Thor?" all of them asked.

Loki laughed then. "Forgot to tell them that, did you?"

She shrugged. "Yeah, I figured it'd be funny for when Talks-like-shakespeare here showed up."

"It is."

She smiled, even as she noted that Loki, unlike his brother, didn't need All-speak to speak perfect english.

"... When did you meet Thor? ... WHERE?" Tony asked.

She smiled, shrugged and answered, "Oh... where was it we first met? Xandar?"

"Alfheim." Thor Answered, smiling a little.

"... Actually, it was Nornheim." Loki spoke up, only to lean back at the stares he got and shrugged. "Well... it was."

"... Oh yes, when your mother took on the Troll King." Thor remembered. "I thought... Hmm."

"Your mom?" Tony asked.

Natasha stared for a moment. "She was being literal when she said she'd fought trolls?"

Skye shrugged.

Steve, as he wasn't as close as the other two were to the girl, decided to be the one to ask, "What are you?"

She shrugged. "Human. Fully human, one hundred percent human DNA." with a mock grin, she added, "I had wondered if I was part alien, so I got tested. It's how I found out that my mom actually _was_ part Alien because of some stupid kree technology."

Thor nodded. "How is... she doing?"

"Fine. And if you're wondering, probably glad you found someone. Stark Industries supplied Jane with some of her equipment, you know." Skye winked.

Tony asked, "I did?"

"_Industries_. Not You personally. She's an astrophysicist."

"Oh."

"So when was that? When you first met..." Steve waved at the two asgardians.

She looked down at her shoes with a blush. "Uh..."

"Twelve." Loki spoke up with a grin. "She was Twelve years old... And after Daisy defeated the Troll King, Skye here asked Thor if he wanted a date with her mother. Just so you know, she's twenty-three."

Thor blushed, as did Skye. "I was TWELVE." She looked at the others. "Just a kid. We do embarrassing things when we're kids."

"... How bad was the breakup?" Natasha asked, curious.

"Date interrupted by Vanaheim being invaded." She answered with a smile.

"That a _good_ thing?" Tony asked.

"Well, I feel bad for the Vanir as there was lots of damage though no one died, thankfully, but watching their date was just... they were so _awkward_." She grinned at Natasha, and added, "Took a while to find someone who she wouldn't be so awkward with. Anyway, it was lucky they were having their date on Vanaheim, actually, because the bi..." She stopped and looked at the grin on Loki's face, because he was outputting _way too much_ amusement. "... Loki?"

"... Thor may have asked me for advice, and like you, when I saw how... awkward things were... I _just had to help_."

"LOKI!" She shouted at the guy she had once hit on at the age of fourteen? Fifteen? she forgets.

"What? No one got hurt, did they?"

She opened her mouth, then closed it.

Thor peered at his brother. "You did that... for me?"

"Your... 'date' was awkward. The 'break-up' wasn't. Was it?"

Thor just stared for a moment, before he began to laugh heartily.

Skye just stared at Loki for a moment, before moving to the front of the craft and lent against the same bulkhead she had lent against when first on their way to the helicarrier. Only now, not smiling.

Natasha looked at her, even as Tony and Steve moved to the back to get more 'gossip' while being careful with Loki. "?" She asked, somehow asking all sorts with a look.

She shrugged. "Too many guys who turned out to be bad guys, or who turned onto the wrong side, or... well apparently even before she was my mom, even the good ones couldn't handle how weird her life got." Natasha slowly nodded. "One hurt too many, you know?"

"I... understand." She glanced at thor, then back. "But... she dated Thor?"

Smiling, Skye nodded. "It was just the one date. Don't get me wrong, Twelve-year old me just saw 'god of thunder' and thought he would be a good fit. Didn't really 'get' that he, at the time, was _waaay_ too immature for her, with a weird mix of immature ideas of romance and asgardian ideas of romance. He didn't know what to do, and _wasn't_ actually interested, as I later figured out. That's why he was awkward on the date - not being into it but being too polite to have said no in the first place. Even if it was to a hyper twelve-year old asking for her unaware mother."

"But... you told me..."

She nodded slowly. "Unlike with Thor, or any of the... other guys she'd dated that _didn't_ go 'dark side', she actually _was_ interested. I saw it, and that's why I told _you_ to say yes. And two years later..."

Natasha blushed, and turned back to co-piloting.

The pilot looked between them, and Skye put a finger to her lips, pointed at him, then did a slit-the-throat motion and pointed at him. he mimed zipping his lips.

-

Skye frowned inwardly as she watched Fury 'interrogate' Loki in a familar-looking cell.

One that shouldn't exist, because the Hulk didn't exist, and it was only the hulk it was intended for when it was created, and left unused until Loki. She was missing something.

She stayed out of the conversation that followed, glad that no one that now knew about her history with Thor and Loki (or that she apparently had travelled to other worlds) brought it up in the midst of SHIELD.

She did raise a hand when Tony asked if anyone had done the reading, but it didn't surprise him, Bruce or Thor. She did get a raised eyebrow from a brunette SHIELD agent who she thought looked familiar. Steve looked surprised, but in a 'should have known' way. She hadn't been kidding about graduating from Culver University at eighteen.

Super Intelligence kind of had it's rewards. Though, not really 'Super' super, just... high-end of the human scale.

When Fury came in, she had to ask. "Who was the cage for?"

Fury almost smiled at her, she could tell. "Some time ago, we got word of a big green monster. Then we got word that it wasn't just any big green monster, but a person who could change into that form, though not quite at will."

She frowned at him openly, but said nothing to that. He didn't seem to know he was actually talking about her 'other' form... if, that is, she was the only Hulk out there. She was almost glad he hadn't said 'a person with earth-shattering abilities' because _that_ would have hinted at him knowing about her mom, and her powers. She really needed to know just what Natasha had learned about, well, everything, and ask how much she had passed to SHIELD. Sure, stories had been told, but Natasha had apparently not really believed at least one of them - about the Troll King - so she doubted they'd been shared.

Though it wasn't outside the realm of possibility because he was right on one thing until recently. She didn't transform at will. And even still, it can happen against her will if she was surrounded by too many people all feeling a core feeling, a feeling that _Skye-Hulk_ as her mom coined, reacts too.

And when she _doesn't_ trigger the change herself, she has less intelligence, like Bruce in the original timeline from what she read. Probably as a counterbalance to the fact she was as smart as Tony and Bruce, even though her 'normal Skye-Hulk' intentional transforms are intelligent and conscious like a regular human, just... not _nearly_ as smart as her fully-human form.

What got her though, was once on the Helicarrier, Loki's behavior just... changed. Not... not immediate. When she was near he was still the irreverant person who, all through this, had felt hurt and pain, directed at Thor. Guilt, too. But then she came here to the bridge and watched on the screen, and moment she was out of sight, he'd changed. Closed off.

And it reminded her uncomfortably of Jessica, when they had found her under the control of Killgrave.

-

She worked with Bruce, at Tony's suggestion. _'Come on, I never get to work Science! with you.'_

True, she stuck to what was her official specialty, but he wanted to get a real read on her intelligence, and was... off-kilter enough from this entire situation to do it, to distract her.

Even watched Natasha's interrogation of Loki, and when Natasha came back, she was confused.

"I don't understand." Tony spoke.

"He said we brought the monster here." Natasha spoke slowly. "That's his play, whoever this monster is he'll try to trigger."

She snorted. Loki knew her 'hulk' side, but... if he were really an enemy, he wouldn't have banked on her being on the team, given it was, so far the others knew, luck that she was at the gym when Steve was brought in. His clairvoyance never worked on her.

... She looked up at the camera... and spoke up. "Excuse me. Nat, want to join me? I need your help in analysing him."

"Sure... think you can get more out of him?"

"I think you can see the behavior patterns better..." She replied, and the two entered the cage facility.

She stepped up to the window, and he stepped close. "Loki." He didn't reply. "Am I locked off from the clairvoyance?" She asked, trying to stay focused, but it was hard feeling the sudden spike of relief from him. He nodded slowly, slow enough not to seem like he was. "Does it lock _you_ off when I'm near?" He shook his head slightly, but uncertain. He couldn't answer.

She looked him in the eyes for a moment.

"Fake out."

His response to that, though nothing showed on his face that she could see... well...

She smiled, and turned. Then turned back at the exit, and added, "He doesn't even know about me, whoever he is, does he?"

"Careful, Romanoff. You may be watching me, but who watches the watcher? Do you really know who is in charge around here?" He spoke to Natasha.

She frowned and followed Skye out.

"He's mind-controlled?" Was all Natasha asked as they returned to the lab, and the statement surprised them all, including Fury who had joined them.

"Not quite."

"What did you mean, locked off from the clairvoyance?" Bruce asked.

"Just that. Someone with clairvoyance is puppeteering Loki, but they can't see me. Loki has always sensed when Heimdall observed him, right?" She asked of Thor, who nodded. "He knew he wasn't being watched on the Quinjet."

"That's why he was, well, acting like a friend to you." Natasha spoke up. "But in there, he _was_ being watched? How did you know, aside from him not speaking to you?"

Skye rubbed her head. "When I'm in a crowd, I can't tell how many people there are from this... but when it's just supposed to be you and, in there, Loki? I should have felt only _two_ people in the room with me. But I sensed a third. In the same way that I sense when Heimdall tried to observe me. A Malevolent presence. One... that can't see me, just as Heimdall can't."

Thor frowned. "The one Odin thought Chitauri leader is known to be clairvoyant... Are you saying he is..."

"Pulling the strings? But... Loki doesn't like to be controlled does he?" Skye grinned widely, then turned to, Tony, and asked. "What's his plan? From what you've seen so far?"

"He's... huh. I think I see it."

"You do?" Steve asked, "What am I missing?"

"He let himself get captured in Stuttgart to get here, where the Avengers are." Natasha began.

"So he could strike at us..." Fury spoke. "That presumes however, he could get out of the cage, which is just impossible."

With a sigh, Skye corrected him. "No. That's... not the point. Besides, he has magic that you don't have defences for." She gave him a sardonic look, "He's only in the cage as long as he wants to be. He can teleport out at any time, _and_ can make it appear like he's still inside.... a skill only Thor, my mom and I even knew until now."

Fury huffed. "You'll explain that later. What do you mean his plan to be?"

"Well, Fury... if you were told by the WSC to plan the invasion of a country, and _really_ didn't want to do it, how would you plan an invasion to fail? If you were Loki, the invasion was of earth from another planet, so on and so forth. Keep in mind, it has to look like a genuine attempt, because you'll be watched,.. just... not all the time."

"He's here to piss off the Avengers." Tony spoke. "Do something when he breaks out to rally everyone as a team, so when the invasion hits..."

"The avengers fight as a unit." Steve finished.

She nodded, then looking at Fury, spoke, "You might want to keep Coulson from going to the detention level when the 'break out' happens. Between Stark's little man-crush-" She ignored the 'hey' from Tony, "Thor's fledgling friendship and Steve's... I don't know on that one... still he's the one tied to the five prospective Avengers."

"Five?" This came from Natasha, and Skye realised in that moment that she didn't know.

"You and Barton are on the shortlist as SHIELD Agents with the skills to be Avengers."

Fury groaned. "How long have you been sitting on that one?"

Skye grinned. "I dunno, when was it you wrote that in the Avenger Initiative files?"

Thor chuckled to himself a little, even as he looked wary at figuring Loki was... "He's acting?"

"Yup."

"... I should have known." Thor looked down. "There are so many things I should have seen with my brother."

"There's still that detail about 'bringing the monster'." Fury asked, and she felt the genuine confusion.

She looked at the room, saw the lack of cameras and presence of holes where cameras had been, to which Tony subtly winked her way, though he was confused at why she just checked for... Then the look of realisation came with the sensation.

She flashed her skin green for a moment. "Not much to say. For me, Puberty was a bitch."

"You turn into a 'big green monster'." Steve spoke.

"Only once a month." She replied, with a wink. He blushed at what she was referring to. "Helps, stress relief. Now we know he's... faking it. What to do?"

Fury was surprised, and had a hint of recognition. Natasha was. Tony was. Steve was. but Bruce... he wasn't.

-

She was probably getting _way_ too much fun out of fighting the Chitauri. New York was being damaged to high-hell when the attack came... though the force of SHIELD jets in the air meant it wasn't _quite_ so much. For show, Fury had even ordered flights to other large population centres, but bet on New York for the symbolism. Local forces had been put on ready alert about 'possible terrorist attack'... so the civilians were already being dealt with, SHIELD Field Officer Agents working with Law Enforcement to clear the areas near the battle zone.

But then, when she first arrived, the sheer _fear_ that permeated the air from the attack was almost suffocating, and she didn't last long before she transformed as a result, though it was only when Steve gave orders that she decided to trigger it herself, hopefully being smart enough from the willful change instead of...

After 9/11, New York had changed. Emergency procedures in the skyscrapers meant that the moment the Tesseract was turned on, SHIELD agents triggered the systems in all buildings with the directive to use subway access when possible. That was what she arrived to, the chaos and fear from the evacuation and arriving alien fighters engaging the SHIELD and USAF aerial assets.

As it became clear that the defence was _well_ taken care of, the fear lessened... and she began to enjoy the fight.

She was kind of like her mom, in that regard, as she jumped from building to building, quickly figuring out how to _limit_ the damage from the jumps, flinging the chitauri at the ground instead of pasting them into the brick and glass. The thrill of the battle had gotten into her.

She even smirked as she saw the Zephyr, at one point, the onboard energy weapon turrets on auto-track for chitauri chewing through everything, before flying directly into the portal.

And she felt like something was missing.

...

Then it came. Comms with the Helicarrier where still down, though Natasha and Barton had ensured that they had connected to the rest of the SHIELD network. Barton had done a good job on the Carrier of disabling those systems. Too good.

And the Nuke was early...

One minute, she was fighting Chitauri next to Steve. The next, Steve had disappeared in a flash of Heimdall's Bifrost abilities, along with many of the people around her. Tony had disappeared mid-flight.

An hour later, she crawled out of the rubble that had been Manhatten... and the portal was still there... Chitauri streaming down from it, only now, unhindered.

She, felt... Heimdall.

She knew what he bade, and she saw Thor was on Asgard, along with the rest of the avengers and _a lot_ of scared New Yorkers. Thor swore to her, using Heimdall's gift, to avenge the fallen.

Mjolnir laid on the ground, not far from her.

She reached a hand out, and it came to her hand.

She felt the change, even as she felt the 'mind' of the hammer nudge a sense of limited time.

She was still green, but she grew in size, and called down the lightning.

She felt the minds, of everyone saved, linked to her own from her empathy _reaching_ out through Heimdall, empowered by _rage_.

She struck.

-

**Fury**

He paled seeing the destruction.

The WSC had sent an F-35 with a nuke, and fired it at the island.

The World was in Uproar, over this.

It didn't matter to him, though. He watched as Skye, battle over, limp over with a hammer in one hand whilst wearing something like what Thor wore, still big and green. She called out, in barely-contained rage, "The Avengers Initiative was made to save the world. But, as given the name, if they couldn't save it... they could damn well Avenge it. Give the Security Council my congratulations, They just managed to do the impossible, and pissed off an entire species."

She'd held the Tesseract in her bare green hand, and held it up. "Not only that. But they just declared to the galaxy that Earth is ready for that 'higher level of warfare' Thor told you about. And _no one_ is going to come save it next time the Aliens Invade. No one local. No one not-so. I'll tell Carol you said goodbye." With that, she disappeared.

He returned to the helicarrier, now hovering at the age of the destroyed city. He connected to the WSC, and gave his most dead look he'd ever had the misfortune to _feel_.

"Do you know what you have just done?"

-

Skye looked at Loki, and shoved him to the floor.

"I knew letting you drink brandy was a bad idea."

Loki looked at the comatose members of the WSC, as well as Director Fury, all laid out on the main floor of Stark's penthouse on Stark Tower - still intact, as was the city.

Thor was shaking his head as he passed by with a handful of poptarts.

"This is a little cruel, don't you think?" Her mom asked from a couch curled up with Natasha.

"They almost nuked NEW YORK." She replied. "And HE is HYDRA!" She pointed at one of the WSC members.

"True. But still... trapping them in a vision of where that Nuke actually Hit?"

"I agree with Skye." Natasha spoke up shortly. "If anything, it's less than they deserve."

"I'm not saying I _disagree_, just... wanting to say it."

"Why Fury too?"

Skye rolled her eyes. "What can I say, I like trolling Mr Paranoid, and needs to know just how close we came to armageddon."

Loki sighed. "And now I'm glad I'm going back to Asgard to face punishment. I dread to think what you'd do to me."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> finished here because... uh... that ending? not planned.
> 
> none of it was. just wrote as it came.


	14. The Portal Crossover Idea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skye's history was... not quite what they expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Skye is Chell. That's the idea. Portal Games are (Mostly) Canon to the story, but she and GLaDOS parted ways amicably enough to stay in contact.  
The Timeline though is fudged a bit.

**She Loves Cake.**

Sure, it was because my earliest memories, of the testing, featured cake as a promise and well.. _I did get it in the end_. Even though once I got outside... well.

I listened intently as the group ate dinner - with a slice of my favourite cake. I'd gotten looks from Coulson and May, and simply handed them a slice as well. The looks weren't about 'cake, really?' but 'where the hell did you pull that from?'

Oh. Right.

When I was around ten, I had apparently been the daughter on a 'bring your daughter to work day' event at a science research facility in Michigan, when Shit Happened, trademark pending. I'd gotten knocked out by a small diluted dose of a neurotoxin. It gave me amnesia, or maybe that was the cryogenic stasis pod I'd been placed in by the one who killed the scientists in order to give themselves time to figure out how to heal me.

When I was brought out of Stasis, it was because they'd forgotten I'd been a child and not, well, a test subject. _Seven years_ had passed for me in the pod, before I was awakened. It was that awakening that was my first memory. I'd been mute, unable to speak due to the fact that the stasis didn't stop aging, only a little, and so there were... issues. The pod made sure I was, you know, alive and relatively healthy in terms of nutrients/food what-have-you.

Before I had been awoken, I'd been given muscle regeneration stimulation things, and an advanced knee replacement. Not that I recall not having that last one, but still.

Then... the testing began.

Then I broke out of the test chambers.

Then I got free, got the cake that _had_ been promised to me... and gone outside and, suddenly, got dragged in and put into cryostasis again.

Another seven years, and, unfortunately, when Iwoke up it was to an _idiot_.

The Idiot, he revived the one who killed the scientists and had tried to kill _me_. I escaped... almost defeated them again, but when I did, The Idiot... no, the MORON then went all incompetently-evil-except-when-he-actually-managed-to-succeed, and I ended up lost in the bowels of the 50s to 80s-era sections of the Science Research Facility, with the evil one who'd tried to kill me. Then as I got the ability to talk back, we worked together, and there I was, _installing the woman who had tried to kill me back into the computer core_.

Oh right, the evil-woman was GLaDOS, who had been a flesh-and-blood woman that inherited the company until the scientists forced a mind-upload on her that killed the body and her mind... well she had a grudge. I ended up agreeing on the 'kill them' thing, given some of the... well they weren't _good_ scientists, and I don't mean incompetent, though they'd hid it well from Caroline until the mind-rape.

She... still _sounded_ evil, all the comments and such, but we're actually, oddly, friends now. Saving her life and her remembering the truth whilst the two of them had to help each other kind of did that.

I wasn't a scientist, therefore I wasn't a target, and apparently all the other kids got evacuated due to the distraction she'd made to make them perform the evac-the-civilians without fleeing the facility themselves. Except I'd hidden away and got a dose of the neurotoxin that she used to kill them when she thought everyone (including me) were gone. She forgot that, then fourteen years later remembered it

Then I went into the outside world, chronologically twenty four, but only physically developped at around fourteen? Though GLaDOS, before the memories came back, during that first revival thought I was a sixteen year old that had volunteered to be a test subject as their first job or something. When I left there, parting on good terms, She said I looked early-twenties by human standards, but according to my telomeres I'm supposed to be fourteen, two years of aging to each cryo. 

That was... uh... 2006, when I left.

Then I returned, and I spent most of 2009 and the start of 2010 living back at Aperture Science learning the history of the company, the tech, the science of those tech, maintenance, and... 

Testing.

I was... feeling antsy for a while before I realised I liked the challenge of figuring out the test chambers.

The Portal Gun...

Ahem

Sorry...

Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, is a Portable Quantum Tunneling Device. It's power source? a freakin _miniature **BLACK HOLE**_.

And GLaDOS thought that, when I left after that year, I could do with a pair of upgraded versions, in the form of the Aperture Science Arm Bracer Portal Gauntlets. Leaving my hands free, and I wont drop it now. Can't drop it. Either of them.

Upgrades include the fact that instead of a pair of triggers for a blue or orange portal, it's a neural link. I tested them out extensively with ATLAS and P-body. They can create up to eleven portals at once, each of different colours, for three pairs. And any of those eleven can come from either of them. Oh, right. Eleven, but three pairs? the other two pairs and odd one out aren't pairs I make, but merely one end of pairs that GLaDOS made the other ends of in a chamber to give me free access to a few things. Two of those I 'cast' as small portals above bowls, so I can get some of the blue Repulsion Gel, and some of the red Propulsion Gel. The third is for a Hard Light Bridge, and no the fourth isn't for an Excursion Funnel. Those have liquid _asbestos_. GLaDOS was really apologetic when I returned and gave her all the info on how bad that stuff actually is for my health (I had symptoms) and she helped me get better. Apparently the _actual_ medical benefits test subjects who had experienced those funnels never had to worry as some of the treatments doubled up for that. Like... by _accident_. The doctors didn't know. GLaDOS figured it out and had me run through medical a few times, as they weren't one-and-done, but still.

No the fourth? It's to make a person-sized portal so I can visit _at any time_.

Anyway yeah I can make three pairs of portals. Red and Orange linked, Blue and Cyan, and a Light Green and Dark Green. Not that I do. I can shut these six (and the four other ones _I_ make to Aperture Science, the other ends remain open all the time.) 

Okay, _technically_ I have twelve portals. I have a laser gun... except the 'laser' equipment is the "Thermal Discouragement Beam" generator back at Aperture Science, with _another_ portal, though that one is small, and instead I have a pistol whose barrel is basically filled with the stuff used to make the Weighted Pivot Cube, and a miniature Portal Device in the slide/chamber creates the other end at the start of the 'barrel', in a "pull and hold the trigger for continuous fire" kind of way - let go and the portal disengages. The battery 'magazine' for it has a little pull out lead that plugs into either of my gauntletts to recharge, instead of using a mini-black hole as an inexhaustible direct source. I get a good five hours of continuous laser use per full charge. _and twenty hours to recharge it_. Anyway.

... oh right the last portal I can make with the gauntlets, it's connected to one we _don't_ turn off... because it's just... awesome.

So I got on SHIELD Radar, and I'm just like... pretending not to understand the science talk whilst eating a piece of cake that I got from my kitchen in my 'apartment' at Aperture Science.

... Oh forgot something. since you know the general story and some of the mechanics and all, dear readers (and if you dont, go play valve's game! just know their timeline isn't mine!), when I shoot the portals at a surface, these ones DO appear a few centimetres from the surface, kind of 'mid air', and oriented to the part of whatever flat surface I fired at. They don't need the Moon-rock surface, well, these ones. The original portal "gun" device when I was 'Twelve' and between cryosleeps needed those surfaces, as I was actually in like the "version before the final version" test track, and Aperture Science didn't tend to dismantle test chambers despite being almost-identical upgraded versions, sometimes next door, sometimes into the existing chamber itself as a swapable, and simply forgot to tell the walls 'version 5 not 4 please'.

Like when I revisited one with The Moron and the pellet launcher and recepticle got swapped out for the Thermal Discouragement Beam, because the pellet generators didn't work. - they'd already had the equipment on the chamber the _first_ time I went through but GLaDOS saw no reason not to spend time swapping out.

They DO need a flat surface the size of the portal I'm making, but part of the neural link includes setting the size of said portal.

Anyway I had cake ready in my kitchen and just did a quick-and-dirty duck out and back in with my Cake before dinner and cut a slice... saw their looks, and then _created a portal_ on the bottom surface of the table, send the other end into the kitchen (oh, yeah the 'pulse' from the gun to where I'm "shooting" the portal isn't actually visible, that's part of the game mechanics) and put a hand through, pulled out two slices after, well, yeah, that _was_ awkward, especially in a way they wouldn't notice, and...

Here I am, making blackhole-powered _Quantum Tunnel Wormholes_ so I don't have to walk to the Kitchen... in front of SHIELD agents who have no clue.

Reckless, but then, it's _me_.

It's 2013. I was, apparently, ten when I first went into stasis, and despite the aging, mentally should have still been that age both times I was awoken - It had been maybe two days the first time I was awake before I went back into stasis. Okay I'm sure the cake fixation was because I WAS TEN YEARS OLD MENTALLY and totally not freaking out because I had the mental flexibility of a ten-year-old. Anyway the second time I was awoken was 2006, and it's only been seven years so, _technically_ I should only be seventeen mentally. Or, going off my physical age - Twelve then Fourteen when I was woken up, I'd be twenty-one.

I look late-twenties. Not bad for a 'looked sixteen in 1999' and, seven years later, looked twenty-two, and oh look at that, it's seven years again, but this time the twenty-two goes to twenty-nine.

They didn't ask my age, so I'm not telling the truth - that being "it's complicated"

Though Steve took my advice on going to therapy about his own case of 'the cryosleeps', I needed it myself but I didn't actually go to anyone because it would have meant revealing to the outside world about GLaDOS, and there's enough Terminator films and crap like that to discourage me more than a Discouragement Beam.

I mean, I'm kind of sure my year of birth is 1982, so _technically_, in the same way that Steve's _technically_ over ninety, I'm thirty-one. Except I'm twenty nine, or twenty-one, or seventeen.

whichever number helps.

"So, Skye." I look up at Fitz, who is looking at my rather tech-looking gauntletts. They even have lights - a row of ten color-coded LED's to indicate which of my portals are active, currently two lit, though they promplty switch off at my mental command to disengage - May is getting up with her nearly-empty cup of coffee and the empty plate that _had_ had a slice of cake on it. "Got any more party tricks?"

I smile as I lean back, shrug a little, and comment, "I sing a mean sciencey song."

They blinked.

Smiling, I pulled out my phone and started the song I had saved. As much as I love GLaDOS' version, I didn't want anyone to hear that... I started, "This was a triumph... I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS. It's hard to overstate, my satisfaction. Allthis mad SCIENCE! We do what we must...because... We Can..."

Sure the lyrics are 'Aperture Science'... but can't give that out, can I? Fitz and Simmons laughed a little at the 'except the ones who are dead' line. Morbid creatures, Scientists.

Though they froze at 'make a neat gun' as, well, they're _still_ refining their night-night guns.

When I was finished, they were staring. I shrugged. "I said it was mean, I wasn't using the 'thats cool' version of 'mean'."

I bite my lip, and start the music for the next one.

I shrug at the end. Coulson smiles, says I have a good singing voice (oh... if only he knew...) but said it sounded like I was talking like I was an AI or something.

I blinked, as I _hadn't_ done her voice, but... well there ARE lines that COULD be taken that way.

Ah well, at least it'll give em context if I ever want them to know. but meh, it's been a week, and that hole in the plane is still getting repaired, so, who knows what the future holds?

-

"Jumping Stilts?"

I look up, one of my Long Fall Boots in my lap with the spring deployed for maintenance. "Takes some of the weight off my ankle. I like the extra height," I wiggle my toes and May notes that my exposed foot was a little higher up than my other foot - boot still worn on it. "But without these taking a bit, they'd be a pain on my toes. They're basically steel-toe capped _high heel boots_." I giggle a little as I turn back to it and finish screwing the spring to the housing. I'm hiding that I'm glad that my implant scars are high enough up my leg they're hidden by my clothes.

"Well put some shoes on, you can deal with that later. We've got a mission."

I shake my head, and wave at the boots, "Only pair, but almost done anyway. Five minutes here and there each week saves a two-hour overhaul every month, and the trip for replacement springs."

She nods accepting that, though finding it odd that I only have one pair of boots. One thing among many, I guess. Like why I still wear my gauntletts - I got away with saying I had broken my arms 'ages ago' and got so used to them that, well, I kept them for stylistic choice. But that I wore them with that dress when I went undercover...? yeah no, they're close to asking, I'm sure of it.

I'm just _really_ lucky that Akela never looked _closely_ at me, nor that the glasses Fitz came up with were pointed in my direction. They'd see the implants - not just my _leg's_ but the neural link implant in my head that connects to my _portal bracers_... and the goddamn bracers themselves. (GLaDOS is already coming up with a material coating for them to hide the internals from such things, as for the implants... well my head implant is small, so we're _hoping_ it goes unnoticed due to its size (the size of a modern CPU core, rather than the size of, say, one of the 'personality core spheres'.

Hell, Coulson was inches or whatever away from grilling me after Hong Kong cuz that asshole tried telling them I wasn't what they thought, but I point out that unlike him, I'm not a sellout and when I saw a situation that needed them I called them in even if it meant having to tell them the threat was real, which is how I met the team in the first place, so.

I preempted him though, said I was looking for my parents, but I thought I'd wait for having earned some trust before asking him to let me go 'nuts' on SHIELD's network for that info, and it's not like it's time sensitive or anything, and between reading SHIELD protocols, my college coursework and our missions I was pretty busy.

... I fled right as his face changed, and I just _knew_ he'd registered me saying 'college coursework' at that moment.

It was technically true, in that all three used a lot of my time. Just... not _quite_ enough to fill a day.

Anyway after that jaunt to Hong Kong, it's back to the US since the Chinese aren't a fan of having SHIELD Airborne assets like the Bus so near their airspace.

Civilian stuff, fine. Military know their boundaries. SHIELD? They really kick up a stink anytime SHIELD get close to China. Story there, probably, but not one I'd learn anytime soon I guess.

"Any details you need me to ha-... uhm, Google?"

May gives me a look that tells me all I need to know.

-

"JEMMA!" I scream as she jumps.

I shake my head, get the thing Fitz says will cure her, push ward away, and dive after her.

I reach down to one of my boots and turn off the gryoscope stabilisation because it messed up my intent to turn, even as I turn on the inertia dampening implants in my knees.

It's not long to speed up to terminal velocity - a _familiar_ feeling, and catch up to Simmons, whose terminal velocity in her, unstable pose is lower - that is, she doesn't have one, she's not trying to make her body rigid and flipping around and spinning and rolling. Luckily I had the forethought because, independantly activating from the boots now, means it _really_ wasn't all that hard of an impact.

And I've landed on my feet _carrying_ things from falling at Terminal Velocity before, so I'm sorta _glad_ that I can steer us over the nearby land, rather than the water.

Then I land like it was stepping off a bench... and I'm glad Jemma's unconscious as the dampener extended its field to her quite visibly for a moment.

Also glad we're not near people or cameras... and clouds hid the show from the Bus... so I better call with my co-ordinates.

...

No phone. Ooops. And... Jemma's shorted out from the... great.

-

I look at the video. The unobstructed video.

I look down a little, as Jemma gasps seeing the very-zoomed-in but _crystal clear clarity_ video of my falling with her in my arms... a purple glow, and me lowering her to the ground checking her over and then the moment, yeah that's me facepalming from not having a phone.

I look up at May, who's looking at my boots with familiar glasses.

I haven't got the material to apply to them or my-

She's staring. At my knees.

"... Soo, I, uh... My Long Fall Boots are classified to high heaven because of the whole, how-it-actually-protects-you thing in regards to, well, you know, inertia, and... uh... not breaking limbs - I told you the truth about having broken bones before, it's when it didn't work for stupid-me reasons. Um. Also, kind of _one of a kind_ deal. And I'm out of contract now so rules say I can use em as long as I can keep em working, since, well... you see my knees."

"Knees?"

I look at Simmons, and shrug. "I have false knees with implants. A pair of gyroscopic stabilisation mechanisms built into and around another in each - either alone can protect _me_ from injury if I land, wearing my _long fall boots_, on my feet after falling at terminal velocity. And I know that works because it was part of the testing for it." I smile a little. "So not my first time falling from a great height without a parachute." I wince at the memory of the first time I did it. "Because I absolutely would have chickened out last second."

"And their classified nature..." I look at Coulson, time for my ploy. Or not _my_ ploy. GLaDOS said they were classified by SHIELD. Pretty sure only because she did it herself. AI vs static firewall script. Guess who won. "I _am_ talking about SHIELD there. Level 9? 10? But again..." also part of that ploy, "as the user, _clearance_ to reveal to others that they _exist_ at all, lies with me, so long as I have reason to. Like saving Jemma. but not _how much_ about them." I shrug. "All I can say is, Inertia Dampener, Gyroscopes, the boots designed to take what little impact is meant to get through to 'slow' me down to a stop instead of insta-stop. Sums it up."

"You're SHIELD?" Simmons asked, jumping to conclusions.

"... Not a SHIELD project, but classified by them. All I know is there are elements that can't be replicated in the lab." Like myself and how apparently I'm the only 'test subject' who ever got used to the sensations, and on top of that, was able to think with portals. There's a reason the early test chambers were built like they were meant for Idiots, and it wasn't because GLaDOS wanted to ridicule me. Nor was it to ease people into concepts before throwing multiple at them. And because they were the "book smarts" though, GLaDOS was the one who decided to do the ridicule in as overboard way as possible, like the 1500 Megawatt Heavy Duty Super-Collider Super-Button. It really was 1500 megawatts, Heavy Duty enough you could park a goddamn abrahms tank on it, Super-Collider because _of course it had one within the button_, and well, it was a large metre-wide _button._ Sometimes my life is weird in hilarious ways.

"And... uh... I... I do like you guys, so if you'll have me, I'd love to stick around, and if I do, I'll... probably end up getting you clearance from the former boss anyway. I like to visit now and then, and I get the feeling..." I bite my lip.

I like these guys.

"What's with the gauntlets?"

I blink at May, whose staring at the gauntlets. I wave at the glasses and then to simmons with a smile, shrug and single word of 'classified'.

She looks.

"Interesting... I..." Simmons looks at me, "am not an engineer but..."

"apap!" I silence, "classified, okay... IF I end up using them, THEN I'll tell you, but... I can't tell you before, right? Right. But I _Might_ need them so I always wear them. But I wear them like goths wear those shirtless armsleeves, part of my, 'style' and all that."

-

It's, of all things, a ghost story that reveals what it is to Simmons and Fitz, when they not only discover what some science research lab were doing, but that what those guys are working on was basically _a larger portal device_, but without the blackhole to make it _stable_.

Also kind of necessary to reveal anyway so I opened up simply with... "No wonder it went kablooie. Look at that, they triggered a Quantum Gravitational Lensing event."

"A What?"

I look away from Coulson after turning to him. Guy keeps sneak up on a girl, give her a heart attack I swear. I look at Fitz. "A blackhole. A small one, but a blackhole all the same."

"And they did it without a containment vessel. My guess, if they even _knew_ about it, they didn't have the vibranium alloys for one and assumed it wouldn't have any negative sideeffects for the picosecond it'd be in existence."

Fitz looked at me sharply. "You know how to contain a miniature blackhole?"

I shrugged. "It aint that hard." I wave my arms, "I've got two."

Fitz backs away slowly. "Skye..."

"Yes fitz?"

"... Are you a mad scientist?"

"... No, but I think I'm the daughter of one." I look at Coulson after a moment, and he nods, knows what I meant to imply there.

I look back, and then to the holographic display. Then Simmons gasps. "You can make wormholes!"

I look at her with a grin, nod, and fire two either side of the table... and then nose dive perfectly vertical in one, and upon popping out of the other, cancel the portals as gravity reasserts itself, landing nimbly on two feet as if I hadn't just nosedived through a wormhole.

"A micro singularity is the active component. _control_ however is... problematic until you get experience with them." I smile a little wistfully. "I do NOT recommand shooting one at the moon. atmospheric pressure differences... translate."

The scientists paled.

"In my defense? I was kind of fighting a homicidal AI that had taken over the facility where all this stuff was made, but it was a MORON of an AI so it didn't quite go 'Skynet'. But a MORON with it's level of control of the facility and access to Neurotoxin... left me with, really... no other choice but to blow its core into space. through a portal... one beneath it's housing... the other on the mooooon!" I smile as I croon the last bit at the pale group.

Then I lost the happy smile and winced. "Though I didn't intend to end up on the other side myself... sucked in by the sheer force. Like... wow. I was on the... welll.... not ON the moon..."

"SKYE. You're scaring the scientists!" Coulson boomed.

I noticed then that they were crying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> got stuck at the last line, went to work, came back, slept, went to work, came back, realised I still had this here.
> 
> The idea basically revolved around, pre-HYDRA Reveal, Skye revealing her history as "Chell" (though I debated with myself over having her had that as a name in any form, or just not remembering it, particularly as the name was only on a bring your daughter to work day + science fair thing, the overgrown mutated potato, in portal 2?)


	15. Little Time Travel thing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a basic crossover idea for a "Skye went back in time BUUUUUT..."  
Crossover? Tech-wise, Star Citizen.
> 
> Specifically, instead of the Zephyr like in a few of my bunnies, here she's actually got a fleet of craft after spending a good decade or two as a pilot several centuries into the future.

**It was amusing**

When she first came aboard the Bus, she found it... it was nice. The Zephyr, though, for all of its military styling in the interior decoration department, that she was impressed by. Particularly as she had a hand in building it with Fitz and Mack. (It's how she and Mack got so close despite the bump of how she got powers and he said she was a danger to people.)

Then there was Zephyr In SPACE! which was... awesome. Not so much why they took it into space though. And not exactly paid attention to the "its awesome" aspect of things in her life what with the "oh crap" that kept coming up and piling on trauma.

Then two decades in the far far future that were rather... 'meh' in comparison, (speaking traumatically, nothing really phased her and she just got used to Shit Happening in her life).

Then she had her little carrier vessel with her collection of ships aboard in transit to a new system, piloted by a guy she kept forgetting the name of - pen or pencil? No, feather? Something to do with feathers. His skin was green, and though he 'claimed' it was only a skin condition, she knew the truth - he was part-human, part-alien. For some reason, a lot of human-appearing aliens pose as humans. Asgard was all but forgotten about in the future, and Brunnhilde Valkyrie, the Queen-in-sortofhiding, was the secretive CEO of one of the big "human" corporations. The asgardian was, suffice to say, surprised when she arrived in the future through a portal depositing the shield agent at the queen's feet. Particularly when Lady Sif, the Chief of Security for both the queen and the company, recognised exactly who she was within seconds despite the almost millenia having passed since then.

And, of course, being glad Asgardians were so long lived so she had someone who could take her in.

Valkyrie had offered her a job, starting with just an Arrow.

Oh.

Arrow is a spaceship. A light fighter. Just a bit bigger than an F-16, though smaller than the F-18. Six missiles, a turret with two laser guns, and two gattling guns.

From there, she built up a little cargo escort service company. Quake Protection Service, because it's not your day that you want ruined.

Started as just fighters - Arrows, always Arrows as they were the smallest and pretty much fastest on the market. Added Wanguard Warden Heavy Fighters, and even added a cargo ship partially converted into a support ship, so the pilots didn't have to wait for planet fall or docking at a station, or simply using their fuel unnecessarily. Though that didn't last long, but by then she'd bought a few ships with two hangers, big enough for two 'wings' consisting of a Warden and three Arrows. Then there was the additional support ships. Then she added in strike capability, because some pirates pissed us off enough that we started beyond escort duties.

Long story short she ended up personally travelling about in a rather large carrier at times, including this time, with a hanger full of some of her new purchases for the fleet. A trio of Exclipse stealth bombers and a squadron of Wardens, Hoplites (the drop-ship variant of the Vanguard), six Sabre Ravens. Stealth Intel/Recon/fighters, and twelve Arrows.

Plus... an Avenger Titan, and her personal vehicle, a heavily-modified Origin Jumpworks' 300-series 328c.

All of that, and she suddenly ended up back in time - ship, cargo and herself, but no other crew.

Above Earth.

A....nd the communications intercept suite connected to the internet, and found that apparently it's 2007.

She has a call to make, she thought as she set the ship's cloak active, holdover from her time as a SHIELD Agent in that all of her craft had a basic Cloak package as a minimum, though by 30th-century standards only the Sabre Raven and Eclipse' stealth systems actually classified as such. Basic didn't matter though, because 21st-century earth sensor tech had nothing that could get passed 'basic' cloak tech.

She put the ship into high orbit, set the autopilot to station keeping, then suited up in clothes close enough to 21st century styles to pass relatively normal, put on her flight suit on top of that, and boarded her Avenger. No second chair in the cockpit, but it did have seats in the bay and a pull-out bed, and inertia dampeners that meant even she could sleep as autopilot flew the ship through 'turbulance'. It'd be used when she kidnaps her younger self.

She idly corrected herself, 'persuade her to come, not kidnap'.

-

"YOU FLY THESE?"

Daisy nodded as Skye - who hadn't asked about the name yet - looked around the smaller hanger with the 328c and the Avenger in it.

Skye had taken word that "Oh by the way I ended up in way too many time travel adventures and got stuck in the 30th century for the last two decade of my life" and accepted it, given, spaceship. then spaceship**s**. 

"I'll teach you to fly these, if you want? I need to find good people if I'm to restart Quake Protection."

Skye was wide-eyed by the end of the pitch. "... where do I sign up?!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just a small one this time. and yes I struggled with the slogan.


	16. Cursed by the RuneReader

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gender. Binary states. Non-Binary states. long ago, she knew exactly how she identified. Then she... graduated.

**A certain time in 1991 in Britain...**

Harry look at the letter in his hand, and wondered if magic was why his hair always grew back.

**A few years Later...**

Harry wondered if he was a metamorphmagus.

Between that and his crush on Cho... he decided to try something. It worked... to a degree, then it went back and he got on with his life. Except he didn't as Umbridge was in the school tormenting him during the day and Voldemort was banging at his mind during the night.

**Post-Voldemort, 1998**

Harry looked out at the dance floor as Ron and Hermione awkwardly tried to dance together. Luna sat beside him on one side, Cho on the other.

"I give it three weeks at most." Cho spoke softly.

"Thirteen days and Seven hours." Luna countered.

"Stakes?" Harry asked, noting them down.

Cho spoke first, "... if I'm wrong, in that they don't implode after three weeks... I go streaking through Hogwarts?" She sounded unsure.

"...Uh..."

"... not where I was heading, but, well, why not?"

Luna giggled.

"And... if you win?"

"I be the bridesmaid at your wedding."

He nodded. "... Okay. Luna?"

"If I lose, which I'm not going to," Luna looked at him with her usual air, and he knew immediately she was setting him up... then leaned in and whispered in his ear.

"... wow."

"If I win though, accurate to within fifty minutes each way," Luna looked at the clock, noted the time as did Harry. "You have to use your metamorphmagus abilities for me for a week."

Harry nodded. "... Fair." He answered with a squeek.

Cho looked between them, but shrugged. Most of the Defense Association knew Harry had that ability, though all of them figured he hadn't even realised it until recently. (They were wrong, of course).

-

"So... Wedding's off." Harry spoke up with a new voice.

Cho nodded, as she looked over Harry's new body. "What happened?"

"Luna won, remember? Well.. I'm kind of stuck in this form now."

"... Is it... complete?"

Harry sighed, and nodded.

"... Harry, are you a girl?"

"... Apparently. Want to check if the Girls' dorm room protections still register me as male or...?"

beside him... her... Luna nodded.

-

**Ten Years Later**

"I can't believe you talked me into joining a muggle computer hacker group." Harry grumbled, only now he was a she, and she was going by the name of Skye. Though she _had_ gained the ability to transform back (with improvements), the form of 'Skye' is now his default. And In that form, he found it hard to do magic. Slight changes? bam, he can do his patronus _easy_. Forget to maintain that change and suddenly he's like Draco Malfoy trying to win Quidditch _without_ cheating in some way. It's just not gonna happen the way you expect it.

Cho, older and no longer dressing like a witch just shrugged at him even as she continued her revision for her medical degree. A place in Seoul, South Korea had already invited her to intern, and rumor was that the company had been bought by Stark Industries.

Luna spoke up. "Harry, do you know why you found it so hard to change form before this one became your default?" She was reading something upside down, and despite being used to it, this time Harry/Skye couldn't actually make out the actual title on the book, though for some reason he suspected it would be eligible either way.

"Got a theory?"

"You were a girl already, but were charmed to be a boy until your powers broke through the forced shape."

Cho chuckled. "So... Lesbian, huh?"

"... how did you two become my best friends?"

"Ron and Hermione were too busy trying to be lovers even though they really weren't compatible, and when they imploded, they felt guilty that hanging with one of them meant the other couldn't spend time with you." Luna answered.

Cho also answered after Luna finished, "Hermione is always stressing her education, Ron's education, your education. I love the girl too, don't get me wrong, and I'm a ravenclaw but... daamn, she needs to relax. Ron however is extreme opposite. he needs to apply the focus he has for chess on like, everything else. it gets old quick, so you hang out with two awesome people who make you smile more often. And seriously, are you into guys or not?"

"... No."

"Do you still identify as male? as having the 'wrong' body?"

"... No, to both." Harry/Skye looked at her body. "And... Luna was spot on. Though, metamorphmagus or not, default form is usually indicative of ancestry. Neither potter or evans had... asian."

Not long after this, Harry/skye discovered that she was not only born a girl forced into a boy's form until her latent metamorphmagus ability overpowered the charms responsible, she also wasn't a potter.

Or an Evans.

She needed to know. who were her real parents and was Harry Potter ever actually a person?

-

She stared at the scientist arguing with Team Bus' mechanic.

What the HELL was hermione doing here? with SHIELD? Pretending to be a mid-twenties scientist.

The girl in turn seemed not to recognise her - which was... hello, she was Hermione's former best friend.

And please let Fitz not be Ron 2.0.

...

He wasn't, he was sooo much better, and just for that, She, Skye, was now totally shipping the two together, because unlike with ron, Fitz was smart, intelligent, witty and most importantly, a good friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaand as I wrote the 'cho got a job offer' bit, I only then realised that by making her the 'Helen' character, she still kind of kept her name. kind of. Helen CHO.
> 
> And yes. Simmons IS Hermione. She's being... facitious? or something. Sarcasm dude, look it up in a dictionary.


	17. Taking Flight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know much of the harrier beyond what I can learn of it from Wikipedia. I just took the guess from numbers about its vertical take **off** ability. compared to its internal fuel weight capacity on another website, then adjusted for 'well, the MCU version can be different from-'

She was only able to draw shallow breathes, though not panicked-shallow.

"_Come on, Skye, you can do this_." She whispered to herself, and slowly buckled herself into the seat.

She couldn't help looking over her shoulder to check if anyone was there, then out of the windows, saw none, not a single soul. Then she looked at the controls, final buckle in place.

"Right. What's f... oh. Checklist."

She blinked, found it, and mentally and, several times, almost physically ran through the motions - almost _and_ several times, because she was prepping herself and didn't want to miss a step.

She repeated it, this time going to the checklist _after_ the items, to make sure she had the order right, then began the actual process detailed on it.

It... was slower than she expected, though not nearly as slow as she dreaded.

Only the slight shaking that shortly after settled gave any indication of the power she was bringing to bear.

Checking the numbers found they were as they should be. Indications as they should.

Then she got to the part about going.

She took a deep breath, then reached for the control that would set into motion an absolute _shitstorm_. '_Holographic Cloaking Field'_'.

"_Cloaking Systems online._" spoke the robotic computer voice, and she nodded to herself, knowing this was now the point of no return. If anyone had seen it disappear, the alarm would already be going.

She set the throttles of the rotor engines to active position, and kept the jet engines in at ready-idle... and then pulled back on the sidestick.

The Quinjet had an awkward control system. Main stick, Side Stick, foot pedals, four throttles, flaps. All the controls you'd seen in, say, a helicopter and then the other ones you'd see in a normal jet plane.

Like a Helicopter, the Quinjet had a hover mode - in which you (try to) pilot it like a helicopter, using the aircrafts' orientation to horizontal to 'strafe' in a direction, and the rotors to turn it. On a helicopter, steer was via the rear rotor assembly providing a lot or a little thrust in one direction. On the Quinjet, steer was by tilting the two lift rotor assemblies along the pitch axis in opposing directions. Vertical changes in height were, for both, made by the sidestick, lifting up increased lift, pushign down decreased lift.

Of course, the difference here being that both rotors on the quinjet are for both motions, versus on a helicopter, where the main rotor provide lift and the secondary rotor provides steer direction.

However, during forward regular-plane flight, lift is provided by the wings which at some point partially close over the in/outlet of the rotors (though they stay active) and forward thrust comes from the pair of jet engines mounted high and rear.

The throttle control bank between the seats controlled the RPM's of all four engines. The outer controls actually set lower down than the middle controls. The outer were for the rotor engines, and the middle were for the jet engines. Since the rotor engines RPM's were computer-controlled during flight, the throttles only had to be handled during start-up and shut-down, going from/to the off and idle positions. The raised jet controls, however, outside of autopilot, actually were pilot-controlled actively during most flight profiles. It was due to how thrust was attained by the different engines. More thrust from the jets came from higher throttles, while the rotors accomplished this by rotor blade tilt, designed to stay at full RPM speed even at almost flat, in which case the computer adjusts throttle to ensure no blade rotation speed increase/slowdown from the changing stress of pushing more/less air.

The flaps control was for the leading and trailing edges of the wings - if you wanted to take off and land like a plane, which it actually would do when carrying at full cargo payload capacity. The flaps in this case were designed to continue providing lift at lower speeds in concert with the lift rotors, which had their own maximum airframe weight capacity for takeoff/hover/landing, like most VTOL or STOVL aircraft. For Instance, the AV-8C can take off either with full internal and external fueltanks, or internal fuel and half its external munitions. An earlier version was internal-fuel-only, she thought. For the SHIELD Quinjet, full fuel stores, a combat load of munitions and a standard-size team of agents was within the vertical take-off capabilities. But it was also a cargo craft. Stick a car inside _instead_ of having the internal and external weapons hardpoints loaded, still take off vertically... ahve both, and... nope. _Landing_, yes. Take-off, no. Give the full internal cargo space the maximum weight capacity, and suddenly it has to take off like a regular plane... though on like, aircraft carriers, an unassisted short take-off was only possibly due to the lift rotors adding some vertical thrust and the jet engines being powerful enough for high-enough acceleration for the wing surfaces to produce the last bit of lift... though this is a fuel-hog, so catapult-assisted still works.

She mused to herself at these thoughts, whilst bringing the Quinjet up to altitude whilst steadily shifting from hover to forward flight, that launching from the helicarrier front deck might not need either... just let it drop off the front edge and build speed through _gravity_.

The problem, as the craft went through transition whilst she was on a banking course away from the SHIELD base, which at this point might actually be alert to her theft, was the weirdness of pushing one foot pedal forward, the action across a pivot pushing the other pedal closer to her, yet both pedals also rotated on their arm to control the rotor assemblies' pitch. She was performing a left turn with bank, so whilst with forward momentum, pushing the pedal adjusted the rear vertical stabilisers to do part of the turn action, she'd also held the main stick slightly left, so the left rotor blades weren't producing as much thrust, but also pulled fully up on the sidestick so the rotors were providing maximum thrust with a small differential,.. That was enough to balance out that the left rotor assembly was kept flat to the wing - all thrust pushing that side 'up', but her right foot rotated the pedal forward, rotating the right rotor to thrust rearward slightly to produce the yaw turn. But, again, the differential here was to ensure that the off-axis thrust didn't also drop that side, still actually producing equal upward thrust, just that the 'extra' thrust in this case is balanced to turn.

PIloting a Quinjet was a far more complicated affair than with a regular aircraft, Helicopter or plane.

Getting it to transition from Hover to Forward Flight whilst maneouvring - as she had pushed full throttle on the jets - was even harder, as the jets created a wider turn arc she was fighting against to get facing the right direction.

Then she was facing west, and levelled the craft out, let go of the sidestick which, due to current speeds, the computer moved it to the proper position for minimum lift. She swapped hands on the centre stick, actuated the flaps from takeof transition to forward, followed by retracting the landing gear, and felt as the computer automatically stopped limiting the jet engines (despite their full-forward position).

Mode transition speed was actually much lower than maximum airspeed with landing gear down, and hover was taxing enough that, a single pilot on their own really should do those controls in forward flight, or computer-autopilot-controlled stationary hover.

She turned the autopilot control mode to preset heading and altitude hold, input the two sets of numbers, and activated it. With that, she let go of the main stick, and only then, did she go into the flight nav computer to input her destination, program the autopilot for waypoint mode, and finally, passing through 75,000 feet - Not hard for the Quinjet as it was rated for _orbit_ when equipped with thruster packs, though those were for once in orbit - released the buckles and pushed the chair back.

She looked into the near-empty cargo area at the rear, and unsteadily got up and walked to seat where she'd placed some bags.

She reached into one and pulled out her laptop, and with a glance at the now empty cockpit, shrugged and got to work, glad that a thousand hours on the virtual Quinjet in the SHIELD-modified flight sim was enough for her first ever flight of the craft.

-

On landing - performed by autopilot as she didn't want to try _that_ just yet, she ran the shutdown checklist and then disembarked, rucksack on her back, duffel in one hand, backpack half hanging off the other side shoulder.

"Hey Mom." She greeted, not watching as the retractable hanger walls and ceiling that had extended to cover the craft shut their doors.

She smiled softly as she looked over her mom. Not _really_ her mom, but an alternate version of herself from the future, and therefore older. Skye had been a little kid when the older version turned up and took her in from a bad foster home. By this point, Skye had lived with her for longer than she had been in the foster system.

And her 'mom' was much older than herself, actually being old enough when they met to be her mother if skye herself back then had been her current age. She spotted a grey hair, but said nothing.

"No issues?"

"None."

"Trackers?"

She snorted. "Please. I took care of those before I even turned on the power."

She was pulled into a hug she couldn't return with a whisper of being missed.

"Mom. Bags."

"Right." Skye looked over her mom, this time her face and the hidden hints of emotion. She'd been worried.

"Mom. I'm alright. You taught me well. The dozen hours on a helicopter _really_ helped."

Her mom frowned. "I thought I told you to use the autopilot."

"I did."

"Really?"

"Well once I was in the ai-... Oh. Right. Uh... Wups?"

"_Skye._"

"... I'm alive. Unhurt. Nothing bad happened. Setting it on the ground for a fully autopilot flight would have taken too long, probably?"

"Any alarms?"

"Yeah. Checked once at altitude, within a minute of the cloaking going on the alarm went. Thank god I did remove the trackers."

She followed her mom from the hanger to the living area, a pair of cots in one corner, a desk with screens and wires to connect their laptops in the other. a small kitchen area in another.

It wasn't home, just a waystation.

The Quinjet would let them go further.

Bags back on the ground, she was once more pulled into a hug, and she felt it now, her mom was _really_ worried for her. She returned it.

"Mom."

"You're only fifteen. I worry."

She laughed. "Uh huh, and what did you get up to at my age?"

Her mom blushed, but pointed out, "why do you think I worry?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a pair of scenes to getting writing again, with no actual plot aside from the implied parts. takes place circa 2003 I guess.


End file.
